F 128 



•^^^14 Castle Solitude 

Copy 1 

Tn the metropolis 



A STUDY IN SOCIAL SCIENCE 



By KARL KRON 

AuTHOK OF "Four Years at Yale, by a Graduate of '69 ' 



PRICE, twenty-five CENTS, POSTPAID 



Copyrighted, 1884, as a Chapter in " Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle ' 



PUBLISHED BY KARL KROX 

THE UNIVERSITY BUILDING, WASHINGTON SQUARE 

NEW VORK 



1888 



BRIEFS FROM THE REVIEWERS. 

Taking all things into consideration, strong and weak points alike, we 
believe that the author has most faithfully kept his promise and that " Ten 
Thousand Miles on a Bicycle " will always hold the undisputed place of the 
first great work on the subject of cycling, Ijearing to all wheelmen that rela- 
tion that Isaac Walton's Complete Angler bears to fishermen, the world over. 
— IVkeelmen's R<:corJ, Indianapolis. 

An olla podrida of endless variety. — Scientific American. As comprehen- 
sive as a file of newspajjers. — Baltimore American. Most useful to those 
wishing such information. — Tlie Times, N. Y. Invaluable to one contemplat- 
ing a tour. — The Bicycle South. A valuable encyclopaedia, well worth the price 
asked for it. — L. A. IV. Bulletin. For the public it seeks it will be a handy 
volume. — The A'ation, N'. Y. Invaluable to all who follow in his footsteps, or 
wheel-tracks. — Lippincott^s Maj^azine. Those who are just beginning the 
sport will find it a work of . absorbing interest. — N'ew Englander. Although 
a veritable cycling encyclopaedia, it is really of especial value to all horse- 
men who drive for pleasure. — Spirit of the Times, N. Y. This manual will 
prove indispensable to the wheelman. It is most valuable to the bicycler 
who has time for riding long distances. — Boston Advertiser. 

The chief characteristic is its comprehensiveness. — Canadian Wheelman. 
Unique in literature and unsurpassed in its line. — McGregor iVews, la. The 
largest and most complete work on cycling ever published. — The Cyclist, 
Coi'enfry, Eng. The most thorough book that any recreative sport has ever 
had published. — Boonvillc Advertiser, Mo. Not alone unique, but prodigious; 
this monument of cycling n'lnst stand. — Anstrali^m Cycling N^e^vs. A really 
wonderful work, the first classic of cycling literature. — JFheeling, London. 
The work will stand as " the Domesday Book of Cycling." — Sezaiug Machine 
&= Cycle News, London.. As an insight into American cycling, the volume is 
very valuable. — Irish Cyclist 6^ Athlete, Dublin. Statistical and- historical, 
amusing and pathetic, it has charms for every reader. — Saturday Night, Bir- 
mingham, Eng. Whatever has been said in way of praise of this book, by 
the wheel literature of the world, is well merited. — New Zealand' Referee. 

A masterpiece of egotism. — Pall Mall Gazette, London. The most ridic- 
ulous book of the season. — Philadelphia Press. His individuality has asserted 
itself, and some of his literary excursions are exquisite. — Hartford Courant. 
A monument only to be compared with Webster's Dictionary or the Great 
Pyramid. — The Bookmart, Pittsburg. One of the most worthless volumes 
ever written ; it is the work of an idiot, not of a sane man. — Boston Herald. 
Cyclists of all nations may get from it many useful "wrinkles." To Ameri- 
cans, especially, it will be invaluable and almost indispensable. The author 
is a genial and kindly philosopher, who makes no false or undue pretensions 
of any kind. — The Saturday Re^new, London. An autobiography of a sin- 
gularly self-sufficient mediocrity; a faddist of the worst order; an egotistical 
nonentity; a gigantic sham; the self-confessed committer of every literary 
crime. — Bicycling News, London organ of" the Coventry ring" 

D3 



Castle Solitude 



IN THE METROPOLIS 



A STUDY IN SOCIAL SCIENCE 



Bv KARL KRON 

Author of "Four Years at Yale, by a Graduate of '69 " 



PRICE, TWENTY-FIVE CENTS, POSTPAID 



Copyrighted, 18S4, as a Chapter in "Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle" 



PUBLISHED BY KARL KRON 

THE UNIVERSITY BUILDING, WASHINGTON SQUARE 
NEW YORK 



(F) 



ADVERTISEMENT OF ''CASTLE SOLITUDEr 

Competent critics of that monumental volume have given a favorable ver- 
dict on this chapter of it, and their comments are now presented as a preface to 
the present pamphlet. Several of them say, however, that, though interesting 
enough to deserve buying on its own account, the act of inserting it in such a 
book was hardly a proper one, because of its irrelevancy to the main purpose 
thereof. They thus ignore the fact that it could not have been profitably 
printed in any other way, — since it is too long to be available for magazine use, 
and too limited in scope for wide circulation as an independent book. 

Having, as publisher, staked $12,000 on the first edition of the book (in 
the hope of so thoroughly pleasing my 3000 " copartners " in all quarters of 
the globe that they will force a demand for later editions until the total sale 
reaches 30,000 copies), the main problem before me was to get my money 
back. If the insertion of a few extraneous chapters seemed conducive to this, 
— because allowing a readable and amusing style of literary treatment, which 
the nature of the subject forbade in the bulk of the book, — I certainly had a 
right to insert them. As I remark in the preface to the companion reprint, 
"Curl," in answer to a similar criticism of irrelevancy, " A good dog-story is 
always in order." If Artemus Ward was right in declaring, " It isn't a bad 
idea for a comic paper to print a joke, once in a while," surely the compiler 
of a cycling encyclopaedia need not be condemned for presuming to enliven it 
with a few really readable chapters. 

" As almost all books are written as a matter of vanity, I fear few jjeo- 
ple will believe me when I declare that this one is written as a matter of busi- 
ness ; and that its chief significance, so far as concerns the outside world, is 
as a unique business enterprise rather than as a literary curiosity. I have a 
right to insist that the solid phalanx of 3000 advance subscribers, represent- 
ing every State and Territory of the Union and almost every section of Europe 
and Australasia, shall never be ignored in the judgment of any one who 
assumes fairly to judge the book which has been produced by their encour- 
agement. Unless denial be made in advance that I have any right to persuade 
these people to serve me freely as book-agents, my mere attempt to jjlacate 
them, by showing the sort of person they are serving, cannot be condemned." 

Finally, if there is enough of interest in this sketch of the Castle to win 
the attention of college-bred men, as such, there is a chance of thus indirectly 
winning them to the cause of bicycling; and if there is any value in securing 
newspaper mention of my scheme for pushing a bicycle book round the 
world, there is an evident economy in sending to reviewers the two " literary " 
chapters of it (in an easily-read pamphlet edition, containing also specimens 
of the general text and the indexes), rather than the massive tome itself. Re- 
cipients of it have given a sutificiently favorable verdict, — as shown in the 
appendix of this pamphlet, — but in most cases there is the underlying senti- 
ment : " We cannot really be expected to review an encyclopaedia." 

THE PUBLISHER. 
Washington Square, N. Y., Jan. 24, 1888. 

S2 



COMMENTS ON " CASTLE SOLITUDES 

It must be said that fair warning is given in the Preface, both in the text 
and conspicuously in the sub-headings, that this book was written for a 
special class — "for men who travel on the bicycle" — and that in general no 
effort has been made to make it readable. Whoever is fortunate enough to 
begin by reading this Preface may thus be prepared and propitiated for what 
follows; for it is very exhaustive and straightforward. But the usual point 
of beginning probably is at the first chapter, and that is decidedly well writ- 
ten and amusing — well calculated to hold the reader's attention to the end, 
and to raise expectations which the succeeding chapters, with two exceptions, 
will be likely to disappoint. One exception is the engaging story of the dog, 
and the other an interesting and pleasantly discursive history of the quaint 
old University Building on Washington Square, New York, a building at 
present inhabited chiefly by artists and college-bred men who value its re- 
markable seclusion and peculiar traditions. To many readers who might 
care little for the rest of the book, these two irrelevant chapters, together 
with the first, — the only ones which have much literary merit, — would be worth 
the price of all. — Boston Advertiser. 

For the general reader into whose hands the book may fall there are 
two chapters of a more literary character. "Curl, the Best of Bull-Dogs," 
an old pet of the author's, is honored by a humorous and sympathetic biog- 
raphy ; while the chapter entitled "Castle Solitude in the Metropolis " is an 
interesting study of Bohemian life in New York. — New Englander. 

We have been reading Karl Kron's great book slowly but surely, and 
can thoroughly recommend it. There are blemishes, of course, such as the 
multiplicity of detail introduced, but most of it is excellent, especially the 

chapter on "Curl." We shall review the volume later We have 

again been dipping into the great book, though the immense size of the mon- 
ster has as yet prevented us from grappling with the whole. Since we 
noticed the chapter on " The Best of Bull-Dogs," we have reached another 
equal to it in interest, styled "Castle Solitude in the Metropolis." What it 
or the Bull-dog have to say to cycling we know not, but both these chapters 
are full of interest as literary works. — Irish Cyclist &• Athlete, DtiNin. 

A very cleverly written sketch of queer life at the University Building. — 
Cape Ann Breeze, J\Iass. 

Two chapters of the book — one devoted to the biography of Curl, " My 
Bull-Dorg, the very best dog whose presence ever blessed this planet " (to 
whose memory the book is dedicated), the other, called "Castle Solitude in 
the Metropolis," and giving an account of life in the New York University 
building — seem quite irrelevant to the volume's purpose and to be introduced 
without sufficient reason. — The Nation, A''. Y. 

Last Tuesday, our Financier became a hopeless ruin, with water welling 
from his gentle eyes. He loves dogs, does the Financier, and he had read 
Karl Kron's chapter on " Curl," and after his guffaws had assembled a kind 
of Derby Day crowd under the windows, he fell a-crying. — Wheeling, London. 

(L) 



COMMENTS ON ''CASTLE SOLITUDE:' 

To the non-rider there is much of interest, sometimes whole chapters, 
such as the one called " Castle Solitude in the Metropolis," and at other 
points very readable and suggestive pages. — St. Louis Spectator. 

Kron is careful to assure his readers that he does not crave a " literary " 
reputation, yet, although he has carried compression to the point of eliminat- 
ing every " Mr.," he inflicts two long and utterly irrelevant chapters, one 
about his dog, the other about the University Building. — T/i^ Epoch, N. Y. 

Karl Kron gives a chapter to the cryptic building on Washington Square 
wherein was laid the scene of " Cecil Dreeme " ; and no one can grudge the 
score of pages devoted to the humors and virtues of a companion of his boy- 
hood, to wit, a bull-dog. This is the only portion of the book done with any 
literary skill. The rest is in excellent guide-book style, and derives its virtue 
from its correctness and its mass. — The Times, N. Y. 

What this extraordinary gem has to do with cycling it is difficult to dis- 
cover, but those condemned for their sins to peruse this work will welcome 
the restful pause which it affords. "Castle Solitude" belongs to the same 
category as "Curl's" biography, though of less merit, as being more labored 
and artificial. These two chapters are like the much-quoted flies in amber, 
with '. modification : — 

" neither rich nor rare. 

One only wonders 'how the devil they got there.' " 

— Bicycling N'ews, London organ of ''the Coventry ring." 

" Curl " and " Castle Solitude in the Metropolis " are well worth read- 
ing, but of doubtful appropriateness in " a book of American roads." — 
IVhect/ncn's Gazette, Indianapolis. 

We have perused three or four of its chapters (from advance sheets) 
with the greatest pleasure, — being particularly impressed with the one which 
contains the biography of "Curl," a pet bull-dog to whom the book is dedi- 
cated and whose heliotype forms its frontisjiiece. — Tricycling Journal, London. 

The author's style may be sampled from the dedication of the book, 
"To the Memory of My Bull-Dorg," &c. — Neivark Advertiser, N.J. 

The general reader is quite as likely as the cycling reader to be amused 
by what I have said in these two extraneous chapters concerning the dear dog 
that I loved and the queer house that I live in. — Author''s Preface. 

The portions of the book that I most particularly liked were, first of all, 
the opening chapter, " On the Wheel," which I consider the masterjiiece ; 
then the chapters on " Curl," " White Flannel and Nickel Plate," " Castle 
Solitude," " Bermuda " and " Bone-Shaker Days," — preference given according 
to the order named. The extraneous chapters are certainly amusing. All 
lovers of the dog must like to read the chapter on " Curl," — and who is there 
that does not love a dog } I think one could find a greater number who do 
not love their own race. I should have preferred the author's picture instead 
of Curl's as a frontispiece, but of course acknowledge the author's right to 
keep his face from becoming familiar to the public— _/.y. B., San Francisco. 

(M) 



COMPLIMENTS FOR " CURW 

The unique frontispiece of "Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle," — a clip- 
ped-eared bull-dog, done by the new process called photogravure, — is some- 
thing of a surprise in a book on such a subject, and the question as to its 
meaning is not answered by reference to some 20 pages of the dog's biogra- 
phy to which attention is called. The volume is inscribed to the memory of 
"the very best dog whose presence ever blessed this planet." Well, he cer- 
tainly does not look it, but the account of his life — and death — is the very 
best thing, from a literary point of view, in a volume of 900 pages. It is 
capital in itself, but its excellence must be the chief reason for its appearance 
in the midst of a tedious record of roads and journeys with which it has no 
sort of connection. That the dog thus immortalized was a great favorite of 
the author's in his youth, and that the author himself is popular with wheel- 
men and now avowedly wishes to make money upon his popularity, are facts 
hardly sufificient to justify the insertion of such a sketch in the body of a 
work so different in style and purpose. It is a piece of egotism that by no 
means stands alone. Yet, in view of the great quantity of matter here con- 
densed and classified, the picture of the bull-dog which embellishes the first 
page, would seem to be a fitting emblem of the perseverance with which the 
author has pushed to completion his three years' task. — Boston Advertiser. 

The extraordinary author dedicates his work to " The Memory of My 
Bull-Dorg." — Boston Post. 

The dedication of the book to the author's bull-dog may have merit as a 
sentimental freak, but it is a literary execration. — McGi-egor A'eius, la. 

The author is possessed of a vein of smart American humor, which illu- 
minates the dry text of his book from beginning to end. In places, such as the 
inimitable chapter devoted to his bull-dog " Curl," he soars to a pitch which 
reminds the reader very forcibly of Mark Twain and Max Adeler; and the 
cyclist who loves his dog will read this chapter over more than once. To 
" Curl," whose noble and expressive features act as frontispiece, the book is 
dedicated, and there is a certain pathos in the selection. — Wheelinq; London. 

Admirers of dogs, and of out-door sports, will take kindly to the book. — 
Neiv Orleans Picaytcne. 

" Curl " and " Castle Solitude in the Metropolis " are well worth read- 
ing, but of doubtful appropriateness in " a book of American roads." — 
IV/iee/men^s Gazette, Indianapolis. 

A frontispiece, representing the head of a particularly ill-favored bull- 
dog, to whose memory the book is lovingly dedicated, forewarns the reader 
that the intellectual rambles of a bicycler did not necessarily share in the 
directness and regularity of his routes. The claim of this pet dog to public 
notice is not clearly established ; but his interesting physiognomy, confront- 
ing the reader, in some measure compels a perusal of the chapter devoted to 
the uneventful career of the animal ; and the theme apparently draws out the 
author's best literary powers. — Alia California, San Francisco. 

(J) 



TITLES OF THE 42 CHAPTERS. 

"Ten T/iousand Jtiles on a Bicycle " (908 pages of 675,000 words ; pub. May 25, 

1887; price $2) is characterized as "A Gazetteer of Anterican Roads in Many States; an En- 
cyclopcedia of Wheeling Progress in Many Countries^ Of its 20 local indexes, the chief one 
gives 8418 references to 3482 towns ; and its chief personal index gives 3126 references to 1476 
individuals. There are 1555 subjects catalogued in its general index, with 3330 references, and 
its table-of-contents shows 857 descriptive head-lines to principal paragraphs. An idea of the 
book's general scope, and of the regions and subjects to which it gives greatest prominence, may 
be gained by inspecting the titles of its 41 chapters, which stand as follows: 

On the Wheel (essay) — After Beer (verse) — White Flannel and Xickel Plate 
— A Birthday Fantasie (verse) — Four Seasons on a Fort~\'-Six — Columbia, No. 234 — 
My 234 Rides on " Ko. 234 " — Around New York — Out From Boston — The Environs 
OF Springfield — Shore and Hilltop i.n Connecticut — Lo.ng Island and Staten 
Island — Coasting o.v the Jersey Hills — Lake George and the Hudson — The Erie 
Canal and Lake Erie — Niagara and Some Lesser Waterfalls — Along the Poto- 
mac — Kentucky and its Mammoth Cave — Wi.vter Wheeling — In the Down East 
Fogs — Nova Scotia and the Isl.\nd3 Beyond — Straightaway for Forty Days — 
A Fortnight is Ontario — From the Thousand Isla.nds to the Natural Bridge — 
The Coral Reefs of Bermud.a — Bull Run, Lur.\y Cavern and Gettysburg — Bone- 
shaker Days — Curl, the Best of Bull-Dogs — Castle Solitude i.n the Metropolis 
— Long-Distance Routes and Riders — Statistics from the Veterans — British and 
Colonial Records — Australasian Reports — Summ.\ry by States — The Transpor- 
tation Tax — The Hotel Question — The League of American Wheelme.v — Mi.nor 
Cycling Institutions — Literature of the Wheel — This Book of Mine, and the 
Next — The Three Thousand Subscribers — Directory of Wheelmen — The Last 
Word (verse). These chapters cover 8do pp. of 585,000 words ; the Preface and .Addenda, 
33 pp. of 27,000 words ; and the Indexes, 75 pp. 

"Ten Thousatul Jtiles on a Sicycle " h^s been produced at an exp>ense consid- 
erably in excess of $12,000 (representing a cash outlay of $6200, and four years' ail-absorbing 
work). It will not be exposed at the bookstores, but an ultimate sale of 30,000 copies will be 
enforced by the unpaid efforts of the 3000 " co-partners " whose subscriptions combined to cause 
its publication. In more than 150 of the 852 towns represented on the subscription list, volun- 
teer agents of this sort have consented to serve regularly as depositaries. A circular containing 
their names will be mailed on application. The chief agencies are as follows : Sew Tork, 12 
Warren st., 313 W. 58th St., 49 Cortlandt st. : Boston, 79 Franklin St., 309 Tremont St., 107 
Washington st. ; Baltimore, 2 & 4 Hanover st. ; Buffalo, 5S5 Main st. ; Chicago, 291 Wabash 
ave., 222 N. Franklin st., 108 Madison St., 77 State st. : Cincinnati, 6 E. 4th st. ; CleTeland, 
1222 Euclid ave.; Indianapolis, office of lyheelmen's Gazette, Sentinel Building: Xewark. 
Broad & Bridge sts. ; Xew Orleans, 115 Canal st. : Philadelphia, Sii Arch st. ; Portland. Or., 
145 Fifth St. ; St. LoniS, 310 N. Eleventh st. : San Francisco, 228 Phelan Building; Wa.sh- 
ington, 1713 New York ave. B<X)ksellers wishing to fill orders from their customers will be 
allowed a deduction of 25 c on each volume purchased at these places (merely to cover the cost 
of handling), but there will be no other " trade discounts," nor wUl the boo'ic be mailed to any 
one for less than $2. 

The volume is bound in dark blue muslin, smooth finish, with beveled edges and gilded top 
(size, 8 by 5^ by ij inches ; weight, 2 pounds), and is not disfigured by advertisements. Its only 
ornament is a photogravure portrait of the distinguished bull-dog (b. 1856, d. 1869), to whose 
memory the entire work is dedicated, and whose biography forms its most readable chapter. 
Copies will be sent for $2, post-paid to any post-office, or express-paid to any office of the Amer- 
ican Express Co. and many connecting expresses which allow the 15 a mall-rate. 

Requests for forwarding the volume " on approval " (to be paid for subsequently or re- 
turned, — a month's inspection thus costing but 20 c.) can be granted only by the Publisher. 
" Karl Kron, at the Uni%-ersity Building. New York City, D." 

(B) 



^lil;^c^i/&cto' Cli^^'t:oQi:^pft ^bi/tioH. 




" Nulla non donanda lauru is that Building : yon could not — 
Placing New York's map before you — light on half so queer a spot- 



•Sfiii 9Tlai^ (Ecrtifvj tftat 



'Ho p^ij- Oive- 'SJoCfat in support of tfve pw-feficatioM. of 

''Een ^f)ousanti fHilcs on a Bicgcle*' 



^i^aa >Habc to •»MC 6i4 



?)lli.. 



dv+tfvor a>vi> Sufi^oPier. 



XXIX. 

CASTLE SOLITUDE IN THE METROPOLIS.^ 

That subtle essence which, in lack of a more graphic term, we call 
" character," though it is sufficiently rare among men, and rarer yet among 
women, is rarest of all among the buildings which the human race erect for 
their habitations. However greatly the houses of men may differ in size or 
architecture, — in outward appearance or inner arrangement, — one house is 
apt to be very much like another in its lack of inherent distinctiveness. 
The reader must be a very exceptional and widely-traveled person if he can 
recall as many as a dozen abodes which have impressed him as endowed 
with a genuine individuality, — as having a nature essentially different from 
that of every other house in the world. It is within the experience of al- 
most every one to occasionally meet with a man whose peculiar traits and 
end.''wments create this impression, that he is the only one of his kind that 
ever existed or ever could exist; but an inanimate building possessed of 
this indescribable attribute of " character " is so rare an object — especially 
in a new country like America — that I presume a great majority of the 
people whose lives have been spent here have never formed the acquaint- 
ance of even one such specimen. Grotesque and singular mansions, whose 
exact types of grandeur or ugliness or absurdity are known to be unique, 
may be found on both slopes of the continent; but they all afflict the nos- 
trils with so strong an odor of fresh paint and varnish as to render them 
in a moral sense quite colorless. " Character " is a product of age and ex- 
perience, and it can no more be attached to a house by artificial process 
than a " moss-grown, historic ruin " can be incorporated into a landscape 
by contract with the nearest stone-cutter. 

London is to me the most interesting city in the world, because of the 
amount of "character" which seems to have accumulated there as a gift of 
all the ages. It is this, I take it, which gives the touch of truth to Dr. 
Johnson's oft-quoted remark to the effect that it is all things to all men ; 
that each individual's conception of it reflects his own nature ; that it is a 
city of banks, or a city of book-shops, or a city of taverns, or a city of horse- 
markets, or a city of theaters, or a city of a hundred other things, according 
to one's personal point-of-view. The Modern Babylon is certainly the only 
inhabited spot in Europe where a man may mind his own business, and iso 
late himself almost as completely from observation as if in a desert solitude. 
The fact that it contains more people than the cities of Paris, Berlin, Vienna, 



'Copyrighted, 1S84, as Chapter XXIX of " Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." 



CASTLE SOLITUDE LN THE METROPOLIS. 3 

Rome, Dresden and Turin combined, suggests " the boundless contiguity of 
siiade " that renders possible a degree of seclusion which is quite unat- 
tainable in those lesser cities. The immensity of London was the charac- 
teristic of it which never left my consciousness during the half-year that it 
was my good-fortune to be hidden there, — without once setting eyes upon a 
single personal acquaintance ; and I do not pretend that my persistent ex- 
plorations of its mysteries revealed to me a one-hundredth part of them. I 
know that there are secret chambers, in the " inns-of-court " and other se- 
cluded buildings, where men may live peacefully for years without having 
their existence or their daily movements known to more than a very few 
people. But I am confident that there is no place in London where the habit 
of bodily self-suppression can be maintained with such a degree of complete- 
ness as is possible to tenants of a certain Building in America whose phe- 
nomenal queerness it is my present object to exhibit and explain. 

The two millions of people who dwell upon Manhattan Island and the 
opposite shores — though equal in number to the combined inhabitants of 
Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston and Baltimore — form but a twenty-fifth part 
of the nation's population, whereas a fifth of all the people of England are 
concentrated at London. Nevertheless, New York is the exact counterpart 
of the latter city in respect to the obliteration of the sense of locality. It is 
certainly the only inhabited spot in the western hemisphere where a man is 
allowed to live as he likes, without question, or criticism or notice from his 
next-door neighbor. I have visited all but two of the other twenty cities 
here which have a population in excess of a hundred thousand ; and I know 
it is not possible for even the obscurest person to live as much as a week in 
any one of them without attracting remark or recognition. No visitor who 
walks along Broadway, or any other great thoroughfare of the metropolis, 
can fail to feel impressed, if not oppressed, by his own relative insignificance 
to the mass, in a far more intense degree than he is ever conscious of when 
elsewhere. An entire change in the moral atmosphere, — a subtle sense of 
greater strangeness, and remoteness, and "unhumanity" in the active life 
around him, — must be perceptible to any one who comes here after visiting a 
smaller city. This metropolitan characteristic of indifference and imperson- 
ality is appreciatively shown by a certain accomplished Bostonian, when he 
describes, as a part of his "midsummer day's dream of 97° in the shade," 
the business-like and effective, but entirely unsympathetic, way in which the 
wants of a victim of sun-stroke were attended to in a Broadway drug-store ; 

" Did you see how the people looked, one after another, so indifferently at that couple, and 
evidently forgot them the next histant ? It was dreadful. I shouldn't like to have _><«< sun- 
struck in New York." " That 's very considerate of you ; but, place for place, if any accident 
must happen to me among strangers, I think I should prefer to have it in New York. The 
biggest place is always the kindest as well as the crudest place. Amongst the thousands of 
spectators the Good Samaritan as well as the Levite would be sure to be. As for a sun-stroke, 
it requires peculiar gifts. But if you compel me to a choice in the matter, then I say, give me 
the busiest part of Broadway for a sun-stroke. There is such experience of calamity there that 



4 TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 

you could hardly fall the first victim of any misfortune. Probably the gentleman at the apothe- 
cary's was merely exhausted by the heat, and ran in there for revival. The apothecary has a 
case of the kind on his hands every blazing afternoon, and knows just what to do. The crowd 
may be a little enmiyt of sun-strokes, and to that degree indiflferent, but they most likely know 
that they can only do harm by an expression of sympathy, and so they delegate their pity as they 
have delegated their helpfulness to the proper authority, and go about their business. If a man 
was overcome in the middle of a village .street, the blundering country druggist would n't know 
what to do, and the tender-hearted people would crowd about so that no breath of air cou'.d 
reach the victim." — "Their Wedding Journey," by W. D. Howells, 1871, pp. 53, 54. 

Now, in just the same unique degree that New York is distinguished 
above all other American cities for the lightness of its " social pressure," so 
is the particular Building which I have in mind to describe distinguished 
above all other abodes in New York. It offers the nearest approximation to 
a home of perfect individual liberty that has ever been heard of outside of a 
wilderness. I have said that nothing comparable to it is contained in Lon- 
don, — which is the only European city where the existence of its counterpart 
could be conceived of as possible, — and I insist upon again designating it as 
the freest place to be found anywhere — not simply in free America but on the 
whole habitable globe. So singular a structure could not well survive the 
sto"" IS of fifty years without attracting the notice of the story-tellers; and 
one of them made it serve effectively as the scene of a society novel. I quote 
his descriptions, written a quarter of a century ago, as showing with almost 
literal truthfulness the facts of to-day : 

" There's not such another Rubbish Palace in America," said he, as we left the Chuzzle- 
wit [New York Hotel] by the side door on Mannering [Waverley] Place and descended from 
Broadway as far as Ailanthus Square. On the comer, fronting that mean, shabby enclosure, 
Stillfleet pointed out a huge granite or rough marble building. 

" There I live," said he. " It 's not a jail, as you might suppose from its grimmish aspect. 
Not an Asylum. Not a Retreat. No lunatics, that I know of, kept there, nor anything myste- 
rious, guilty, or out of the way." 

" Chrysalis College, is it not? " 

" You have not forgotten its monastic phiz ?" 

"No; I remember the sham convent, .sham castle, modem-antique affair. But how do 
you happen to be quartered there ? Is the college defunct ? " 

" Not defunct ; only without vitality. The Trustees fancied that, if they built roomy, their 
college would be populous; if they built marble, it would be permanent ; if they built Gothic, 
it would be scholastic and medieval in its mfluences ; if they had narrow, mullioned windows, 
not too much disorganizing modern thought would penetrate." 

" Well, and what was the result ? " 

" The result is that the old nickname of Chrysalis sticks to it, and whatever real name it 
may have is forgotten. There it stands, big, battlemented, buttressed, marble, with windows 
like crenelles ; and inside they keep up the traditional methods of education." 

" But pupils don't beleaguer it ? " 

"That is the blunt fact. It stays an ineffectual high-low school. The halls and lecture- 
rooms would stand vacant, so they let them to lodgers." 

" You are not very grateful to your landlords." 

" I pay my rent and have a right to criticise." 

" Who live there besides you ? " 

" Several artists, a brace of young doctors, one or two quiet men-about-town, Churm, ar.d 
myself. But here we are, I'yng, at the grand portal of the grand front." 

" I see the front and the door. Where is the grandeur? " 

" Don't put on airs, stranger. We call this imposing, magniflque, in short, pretty good. 



CASTLE SOLITUDE IN THE METROPOLIS. 5 

Up goes your nose ! You have lived too long in Florence. Brunelleschi and Giotto have spoilt 
you. Well, I will show you something better inside. Follow me ! " 

We entered the edifice, half college, half lodging-house, through a large doorway, under a 
pointed arch. The interior was singularly iil-contrived. A lobby opened at the door, communi- 
cating with a dim corridor running through the middle of the building, jjarallel to the front. A 
fan-tracery vaulting of plaster, peeled and crumbling, ceiled the lobby. A marble stairway, with 
iron hand-rails, went squarely and clumsily up from the door, nearly filling the lobby. Stillfleet 
led the way upstairs. He pointed to the fan-tracery. " This of course reminds you of King's 
College Chapel," said he. 

" Entirely," replied I. "Pity it is deciduous! " and I brushed off from my coat several 
flakes of its whitewash. 

The stairs landed us on the niain floor of the building. Another dimly lighted corridor, 
answermg to the one below, but loftier, ran from end to end of the building. This also was 
paved with marble tiles. Large Gothicish doors opened along on either side. The middle room 
on the rear of the corridor was two stories high, and served as chapel and lecture-room. On 
either side of this a narrow staircase climbed to the upper floors. 

By the half-light from the great window over the doorway where we had entered, and from a 
single mullioned window at the northern end of the corridor, there was a bastard mediavalism of 
effect in Chrysalis, rather welcome after the bald red-brick houses without. 

" How do you like it ? " asked Stillfleet. " It's not old enough to be romantic. But then 
it does not smell of new paint, as the rest of America does." 

We turned up the echoing corridor toward the north window. We passed a side staircase 
and a heavily padlocked door on the right. On the left was a class-room. The door was open. 
We could see a swarm of collegians buzzing for such drops of the honey of learning as they could 
get from a lank plant of a professor. We stopped at the farther door on the right, adjoining 
the one so carefully padlocked. It bore my friend's plate. Stillfleet drew a great key, aimed at 
the keyhole and snapped the bolt, all with a mysterious and theatrical air. 

" Shut your eyes now, and enter into Rubbish Palace ! " exclaimed he, leading me several 
steps forward before he commanded " Open sesame ! " 

"Where am I?" I cried, staring about in surprise. "This is magic, phantasmagoria, 
Harry. Outside was the nineteenth century ; here is the fifteenth. When I shut my eyes, I 
was in a seedy building in a busy modern town. I open them, and here I am in the Palazzo 
Sforza of an old Italian city, in the great chamber where there was love and hate, passion and 
despair, revelry and poison, long before Columbus cracked the egg." 

" It is a rather rum old place," said Stillfleet, twisting his third mustache, and enjoying 
my surprise. 

" You call it thirty feet square and seventeen high? Built for some grand college purpose, 
I suppose ? " 

"As a hall, I believe, for the dons to receive lions in on great occasions. But lions and great 
occasions never came. So I have inherited. It is the old story. Sic vos 7ion vobis cedificatis 
cedes. How do you like it? Not too somber, eh? with only those two narrow windows open- 
ing north ? " 

" Certainly not too somber. I don't want the remorseless day staring in upon my studies. 
How do I like it? Enormously. The place is a romance. It is Dantesque, Byronic, Victor 
Hugoish. I shall be sure of rich old morbid fancies under this ceiling, with its frescoed 
arabesques, faded and crumbling. But what use has Densdeth for the dark room with the 
padlocked door, next to yours ? — here, too, in this public privacy of Chrysalis ? " 

" The publicity makes privacy. Densdeth says it is his store-room for booksand furniture. ' 

" Well, why not ? You speak incredulously." 

" Because there's a faint suspicion that he lies. The last janitor, an ex-servant of 
Densdeth's, is dead. None now is allowed to enter there except the owner's own man, a 
horrid black creature. He opens the door cautiously, and a curtain appears. He closes the 
door before he lifts it. Densdeth may pestle poisons, grind stillettos, sweat eagles, revel by 
gas-light there. What do I know ? " 

" You are not inquisitive, then, in Chrysalis? " 

" No. We have no coticierge by the street-door to spy ourselves or our visitors. We can 
live here in completer privacy than anywhere in Christendom. Daggeroni, De Bogus, or 
Mademoiselle des Mollets might rendezvous with my neighbor, and I never be the wiser." — 
"Cecil Dreeme," by Theodore Winthrop, 1861, pp. 32-42 (N. Y. : H. Holt, 1876, pp. 360). 



6 TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 

That final paragraph is the most significant one of the entire qiDted de- 
scription, for it can be applied with similar truthfulness to no other habila- 
tion on the planet ; but, before attempting any commentary on the words of 
the novelist, I wish to compare w-ith them the words which other well-in- 
formed writers have printed, beginning with those of the present editor of 
the Atlantic Monthly. They appeared a half-decade later than the novel, in a 
series of sketches which he prepared concerning the young artists of New 
York for a youths' magazine. He was then not quite thirty years old. An 
ill-drawn northwest view of the University accompanied one of his articles, 
and a well-drawn picture of an artist's chamber therein embellished the other : 

Trades of a feather, like the birds, are fond of flocking together, and have a habit of light- 
ing on particular spots without any particular reason for so doing. Our friends, the artists, 
possess the same social tendencies, and, in the selection of their studios, often display the same 
eccentricity. We shall never be able to understand why eight or ten of these pleasant fellows 
have located themselves in the New York University. There isn't a more gloomy structure 
outside of one of Mrs. Radcliffe's romances ; and we hold that few men could pass a week in 
those lugubrious chambers without adding a morbid streak to their natures, — the present genial 
inmates to the contrary notwithstanding. There is something himian in the changes which come 
over houses. Many of them keep up their respectability for a long period, and ripen gradually 
into ■ cheery, dignified old-age ; even if they become dilapidated and threadbare, you see at 
once that they are gentlemen, in spite of their shabby coats. Other buildings appear to suffer 
disappointments in life, and grow saturnine, and, if they happen to be the scene of some tragedy, 
they seem never to forget it. Something about them tells you, 

" As plain as whisper in the ear, the place is haunted." 

The University is one of those buildings that have lost their enthusiasm. It is dingy and 
despondent, and doesn't care. It lifts its raachicolated tiu-rets above the tree tops of Washing- 
ton Square with an air of forlorn indifference. Summer or winter, fog, snow, or sunshine, — they 
are all one to this dreary old pile. It ought to be a cheerful place, just as some morose people 
ought to be light-hearted, having everything to render them so. The edifice faces a beautiful 
park, full of fine old trees, and enlivened by one coffee-colored squirrel, who generously tnakes 
himself visible for nearly half an hour once every summer. As we write, his advent is an.xiously 
expected, the fountain is singing a silvery prelude, and the blossoms are flaunting themselves 
under the very nose, if we may say it, of the University. But it refuses to be merry, looming up 
there stiff and repellant, with the soft spring gales fanning its weather-beaten turrets, — an archi- 
tectural example of ingratitude. Mr. Longfellow says that 

"All houses wherein men have lived and died are haunted houses." 

In one of those same turrets, many years ago, a young artist grew very weary of this life. Per- 
haps his melancholy spirit still pervades the dusty chambers, goes wearily up and down the 
badly-lighted staircases, as he used to do in the flesh. If so, that is what chills us, as we pass 
through the long uncarpeted halls, leading to the little nookery tenanted by Mr. Winslow Homer. 
The University is not monopolized by artists, however. The ground floor is used for a variety 
of purposes. We have an ill-defined idea that there is a classical school located somewhere on 
the premises, for we have now and then met files of spectral little boys, with tattered Latin 
grammars under their arms, gliding stealthily out of the somber doorway, and disappearing in the 
simshine. Several theological and scientific societies have their meetings here, and a literary 
club sometimes holds forth upstairs in a spacious lecture-room. Excepting the studios there is 
little to interest us, unless it be the locked apartment in wliich a whimsical virtuoso has stored a 
great quantity of curiosities, which he brought from Europe, years ago, and has since left to the 
mercy of the rats and m<jths. Tliis mysterious room is turned to very good dramatic account by 



CASTLE SOLITUDE LV THE METROPOLIS. 



7 



the late Theodore Winthrop, in his romance of " Cecil Dreeme." (A friend informs us that 
this " antiquary's collection " has been removed within a year or two.) — " Among the Studios," 
by T. B. Aldrich (fiur Young Folks, Boston, July, i8b6, pp. 394-395). 

In the September issue of the magazine (p. 573) the same writer added : "A little boy — 
we know he must be a spectral little boy, and are sure he has a tattered Latin grammar under his 
arm — has written us a dispiriting missive, in which he finds fault with us because we called the 
University a gloomy building, and wondered how people could live in it and not grow mor- 
bid. Now the tone of our sinister little friend's letter is an evidence of the deteriorating effect 
which the cheerless architecture uf the University exercises on the youthful mind. Figuratively 
speaking, he has thrown down the tattered Latin grammar, taken off his little jacket, and dared 
us to meet him in mortal combat on the threshold of the haunted castle. For our part, we shall 
avoid that spectral little boy." Mr. Aldrich also tells a story (p. 397) concerning a negro boot- 
black called Bones, who, after having been persuaded with great difficulty to enter one of the 
studios, in order to serve as a model ("at the foot of each stairway he evinced a desire to run 
away "), was so alarmed when the artist locked the door upon him that he shrieked aloud and 
bounced furiously around the room until permitted to escajie : " The cause of this singular 
conduct on the part of Mr. Bones was afterwards accoimted for. It appears the simple fellow 
had somehow conceived the idea that the artist was ' a medicine man ' (/. e., an army surgeon), 
and that he had lured him, Mr. Bones, into his den, for the purpose of relieving said Mr. Bones 
of a limb or two, by way of practice. This is one solution of our friend's terror. My own im- 
pression is, however, that the profound gloom of the University turned his brain." 

A much more recent article concerning " The Young Artists of New York " (By W. H. 
Bishop, in Scribtier's Motiihly, January, 18S0, p. 362), accompanied by a good wood-cut of one 
of the chambers alluded to, said: " If something odd in the way of a studio be demanded, it 
may be found in the old-fashioned Tudor pile known as the University building, more singular 
now than when Winthrop found it an appropriate place for the location of his romance of 
' Cecil Dreeme.' Tlv^ chapel has been divided by a floor at half its height, and this again by a 
few partitions. In the spacious upper chambers thus formed, which command picturesque views 
of Washington Square, the Hudson River and the New Jersey hills beyond, the ribs and 
pendentives of the vaulted roof still show, with a most ancient and baronial effect." With this 
maybe compared the remarks, of the same date, in " Appletons' Dictionary of New York" 
(p. 221): " The University building was formerly a place in which the best known members of 
the artistic and literary world had their chambers, which were used both as studios and lodgings. 
Some of them still remain as tenants of their old apartments, but the prevalence of lodging and 
apartment houses of late years has drawn the majority of them away. Theodore Winthrop's 
clever novel of ' Cecil Dreeme ' gives a capital idea of the buildings as they were in the ante- 
war period, and among his characters will be recognized a well-known litterateur and editor, 
who is still a tenant of the University, and whose elegantly decorated apartments and fine collec- 
tion of bric-a-brac form one of the attractions there." 

A metropolitan correspondent of the San Fra7iC!sco Chronicle, who said he himself had 
once occupied the historic little room, in the southwest turret of the Building ("historic" 
because there Professors Draper and Morse, in 1839, made the first American experiments in 
photography, simultaneously with Daguerre's discovery of ft in France), offered the following 
testimony in that paper of June 6, 1S80 : "The most interesting feature of this locality is a 
ponderous pile at the eastern end of the Square, built of gray stone, and frowning, like a gloomy 
ancient castle, upon the trees and greensward of the park. There is no building in the city that 
resembles it in any particular. Its architecture is of a Gothic type, its windows, walls, massive 
doors and all, being in keeping. Along the edge of its roof are heavy battlements, and battle- 
mented turrets rise at the four corners. A venerable air of age hangs over it. It is one of the 
few buildings in the metropolis that awaken curiosity in a stranger, and give his fancy an 
opportunity to roam. The structure has an evil repute with the servant-girls of the neighbor- 
hood. At night they pass it on the other side of the street, and they whisper about it with 
dilated eyes. They have a notion that deep in sub-cellars lie corpses, skeletons and other dread- 



8 TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 

ful things ; for they believe that among the many institutions and persons quartered in the 
building is a medical school, frequented by a large number of heartless young doctors." 

The square itself, covering eight acres of ground, is the largest one in 
the city, — excepting Central Park, whose area is just a hundred times 
greater, and whose lower boundary is two and a half miles to the northward. 
The deed of the transfer of the eight acres in 1797, when the city purchased 
them from the Smith estate to form a Potter's P"ield, called for "ninety lots 
on Sandy Hill lane." Thirty years later, when the place was converted into 
Washington Parade Ground, burials there had been for along time unknown. 
The novelist whom I have first quoted called it (i860) "a mean, shabby en- 
closure. Ailanthus Square was indeed a wretched place, stiffly laid out, 
shabbily kept, planted with mean twigless trees ; and in the middle stood the 
basin of an extinct fountain, filled with foul snow, through which the dead 
cats and dogs were beginning to sprout, at the solicitation of the winter sim- 
shine. A dreary place, and drearily surrounded by red brick houses, with 
marble steps monstrous white, and blinds monstrous green, — all destined to 
be boarding-houses in a decade." The prophecy was not fulfilled, however, 
for a recent chronicler has truthfully said : " The whole neighborhood was 
formf^rly one of the most quiet and fashionable in the city, and along the 
north front of the park it is so still." A view of this " north front," and of 
the northwest turret of the University, is impressed upon the cover of 
Henry James's novel called "Washington Square" (N Y.: Harpers, iSSi, pp. 
223), into which he inserts a " topographical parenthesis " as'follows (p. 23) : 

The ideal of quiet and of genteel retirement, in 1835, was found in Washington Square, 
where the Doctor built himself a handsome, modem, wide-fronted house, with a big balcony 
before the drawing-room windows, and a flight of white-marble steps ascending to a portal which 
was also faced with white marble. This structure, and many of its neighbors, which it exactly 
resembled, were supposed, forty years ago, to embody the last results of architectural science, 
and they remain to this day very solid and honorable dwellings. In front of them was the 
square, containing a considerable quantity of inexpensive vegetation, enclosed by a wooden 
paling, which increased its rural and accessible appearance ; and round the comer was the 
more august precinct of the Fifth Avenue, taking its origin at this point with a spacious and 
confident air which already marked it for high destinies. I know not whether it is owing to 
the tenderness of early associations, but this portion of New York appears to many persons the 
most delectable. It has a kind of established repose which is not of frequent occurrence in 
other quarters of the large, shrill city; it has a riper, richer, more honorable look, than any of 
the upper ramifications of the great longitudinal thoroughfare — the look of having had some- 
thing of a social history. It was here, as you might have been informed on good authority, 
that you had come into a world which appeared to offer a variety of sources of interest ; it was 
here that your grandmother lived, in venerable solitude, and dispensed a hospitality which com- 
mended itself alike to the infant imagination and the infant palate ; it was here that you took 
your first walks abroad, following the nursery maid with unequal step, and sniffing up the strange 
odor of the ailanthus trees which at that time formed the principal umbrage of the Square, and 
diffused an aroma which you were not yet critical enough to dislike as it deserved. 

Elsewhere the novelist says of his heroine : " She preferred the house 
in Washington Square to any other habitation whatever, and * * * the 
middle of August found her still in the heated solitude of Washington 



CASTLE SOLITUDE IN THE METROPOLIS. 9 

Square." When the palings were taken down, and the park otherwise " im- 
proved," more than a decade ago, the mistake was made of cutting it in two 
by a roadway, — under the pretense of a necessity for giving a direct outlet to 
the traffic of Fifth Avenue into the two streets obliquely opposite. Since 
then, two more-serious assaults on the integrity of the park have been made 
and decisively baffled. One plan contemplated using it as an approach to the 
Hudson River Tunnel, and the other sought to erect upon it a regimental 
armory. From a journalistic protest against the latter desecration, I extract 
this sympathetic and accurate account of the Square as it appears to-day : 

The park is one of the oldest and prettiest in the city. With the picturesque University 
buildings on the east side, and to the north tlie old-fashioned, substanti.il dwelling-houses — not 
a wooden row of " four-story, high-stoop, brown-stone fronts," but a quiet row of well-built 
houses, suggesting a life within of a different sort from that led by the McGillicuddys and the 
Potiphars — removed from the roar and bustle of Broadway, it seems, wliat in fact it is, a quarter 
of an older and pleasanter town which luckily has escaped the ravages of contractors and street- 
openers, and survives to remind us that city life is not necessarily ugly and repulsive. Wash- 
ington Square, too, is one of the few public parks in the older parts of the city in which rich and 
poor meet on common ground. The south side of the square and the streets near it are inhab- 
ited by people of the poorer class who have looked upon the park for years as their children's 
p'.ay ground, and on Sundays and public holidays in the spring and early summer it is pleasant 
to notice that the shade of the fine old trees and the cool breezes are not monopolized by the 
rich at the expense of the poor, nor by the poor to the exclusion of the rich, but are really dem- 
ocratically shared by both classes. For a democratic city it is singular how little this is the case 
in most of the old parks. They generally fall prey to some distinct class, as with Tompkins 
Square, or else become mere thoroughfares, like Madison and Union Squares. But Washing- 
ton Square has preserved this characteristic of a bygone time, and with its fountain, and its 
broad walks and shady seats, filled with merry children, nurses with their white caps, and here 
and there a group of enterprising householders spending the morning al fresco with their neigh- 
bors, it suggests faintly the pictures of life in New York handed down to us by our grandmothers, 
when the Bowling Green was in all its glory, and the Von Twillers and Stuyvesants used to take 
their afternoon stroll upon the Battery. — TJie Natioii, March 7, 1S7S, p. i6g. 

I have taken pains to present this great variety of citations, as a pre- 
liminary to my own story, in order that their united testimony, concerning 
the phenomenal amount of " character " concentrated upon this particular 
point in the metropolis, may convince the reader that the tale is worth 
the telling. The legal style and title of the institution is " The University 
of the City of New York." Its corner-stone was laid in July, 1S33, and its 
rooms were first occupied for purposes of instruction in 1835. Mean- 
time its erection had been the cause of a " stone-cutters' riot," arising from 
the fact that the material used to form its walls had been chiseled and worked 
by convicts of the State at Sing Sing ; and one of its walls had to be rebuilt, 
at great expense, because, as originally misplaced, it intruded upon ground 
belonging to the city. These initial mischances seem almost like portents of 
the executive misfortunes which have ever since connected themselves with 
the problem of management. The great and irremediable misfortune, as I 
understand it, was the business panic or revulsion of 1837, which financially 
crippled the men of wealth upon whose generosity, public-spirit and local- 



lo TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. ^ 

pride the trustees had confidently counted for the proper endowment of 
professorships. Neither Harvard nor Yale possessed at that period a single 
building which could claim any architectural attribute beyond what attaches 
to a rectangular pile of red bricks (or of white stone — for Harvard had one 
such structure) ; and though Princeton could point with pride to the brown 
sandstone front of Nassau Hall, against which Washington fired his cannon, 
— and which was, when erected in 1756, "the finest building between New 
York and Philadelphia" — the first really massive and imposing collegiate 
pile put up on this continent was that of the New York University. It was 
one of the very largest, if not the largest, of all the big buildings then lo be 
found within the limits of America's biggest city ; and marvelous as has been 
the growth of that city within the intermediate half-century, there are not 
many of its monster buildings of to-day which cover a greater superficial area 
or make a greater impression upon the memory of the casual passer-by.^ 

The dream of the founders doubtless was to endow their professorships 
on a proportionately magnificent scale, — to make the emoluments of service 
in this great " university " as much superior to those of the poorly-paid in- 

•A picture of Washington Square, surmounting similar ones of Union and Madison squares, 
may be found on the 554th page of the second volume of " Picturesque America " (N. Y : 
Applets. . s, 1872), accompanied by this remark: " The castellated-looking building on its eastern 
border is the University, a Gothic pile of considerable age and quaint aspect, suggestive of the 
medieval structures that lie scattered through the European countries." The sketch gives the 
Building a squatty appearance, however, quite different from its actual loftiness ; and no proper 
conception of this is afforded by the little wood-cut in " Duyckinck's Cyclopsedia " (ii., 733). 
The picture which I have had printed on the fly-leaf of subscribers' copies of this book, thougli 
equally small, is fairly satisfactory, and is taken from the southwest. That also is the frontag.i 
shown by the larger and better cut in Mrs. Martha J. Lamb's" History of the City of New York " 
(ii., 719), which says : " It was a Gothic structure of white freestone, modeled after King's Col- 
lege, England, and was esteemed a masterpiece of pointed architecture, with its octagonal tur- 
rets rising at each of the four corners. It was a fine edifice, iSo feet long by loo feet wide, on 
Washington Square, which was then (the corner stone was laid in 1833) quite a long distance 
from the city, whose population was about 200,000. It was opened in 1835, and publicly dedi- 
cated May 20, 1837. The rooms of the upper story adjacent to the chapel on the north side 
were occupied by Professor S. F. B. Morse and his pupils ; and in the following September, 
having completed the first crude telegraph recording apparatus, he exhibited to a select assembly 
at the University the operation of the new system, shovnng his ability to communicate between 
points five miles apart (p. 742). In the ' stone-cutters' rebellion ' the men paraded the streets with 
incendiary placards and even went so far as lo attack several houses. The troops were called 
out and, after dispersing the malcontents, lay under arms in Washington Square four days and 
four nights." Biographical details concerning the professors and other people interested in thi 
enterprise cover more than two pages in " Duyckinck's Cyclopaedia of American Literature " 
(1850), already alluded to, but the only remarks that seem worth my quoting are these : " The 
erection of the building, and the period of commercial depression which followed its commence- 
ment, weighed heavily on the fortunes of the young institution. It was the first introduction, 
on any considerable scale, of the English collegiate style of architecture." The "Supplement 
of iS66"to the work just quoted offered this additional fact about the University : " Its debt 
of $70,250 was paid June 14, 1S54. Immediately afterwards the council proceeded to carry out 
the great aim of the institution by measures for organizing the .School of Art, the School of 
Civil Engineering, and the School of Analytical and Practical Chemistry." 



CASTLE SOLITUDE LY THE METROPOLIS. n 

structors in mere " colleges " like Harvard and Yale, as this pretentious 
academic palace of the metropolis was superior to the mean rectangular 
barracks which sheltered their students in the little provincial cities of Cam- 
bridge and New Haven. No "dormitory system " was to be tolerated here- 
no undergraduates whatever were to be lodged in this latest temple of learn- 
ing ; all of its apartments were to be devoted to purposes of instruction and 
government ; and professors and students alike were to make their homes 
where they pleased, throughout the city, as is the custom of university life in 
Germany. The Chancellor and the Vice Chancellor, however (so common a 
title as " President " naturally seemed inadequate for the executive chief of 
so giand an institution!), were to occupy the two houses which are attached 
to the flanks of the main edifice, on parallel streets, and which justify the 
occasional designation of it in the plural. The second part of the founders' 
dream — or perhaps I may better say the second original feature in their 
scheme — concerned the attraction of endowments by the device of so consti- 
tuting its governing board as to "represent no single religious denomination," 
though at the same time " keeping the University under distinct religious and 
evangelical influence." All the earlier colleges had been started by sectarians 
avowedly as feeders for some particular church denomination ; and I believe 
the University of Virginia (which had been got into operation hardly half-a- 
dozen years before, just as its famous foirnder, Thomas Jefferson, drew his lat- 
est breath) was the first important academic experiment ever attempted in 
America without the aid and control of the clergy. 

The theory, therefore, seemed then sufficiently plausible, that, as the cler- 
ical influence of a single religious order had been able to attract enough funds 
for founding and endowing many a fairly prosperous college, such influence in 
several powerful denominations combined might suffice for creating and main- 
taining a colossal university, of a scope and dignity commensurate with the 
wealth and splendor of the metropolis. The practical difficulties in the way of 
making a combination of that sort really effective to-day are generally recog- 
nized as insuperable ; and I am probably not alone in believing that they were 
insuperable in 1S30. I do not think that, at the best, the trustees could have 
collected money enough to make their professorial chairs the " softest " seats 
of the sort attainable in America, — money enough to have finally formed a 
Faculty outranking in fame and influence the educational staff of every other 
college. But except for the business disaster of 1S37, they might very likely 
have secured sufficient endowments to have given the institution a prosperous 
start and allowed it to make a fair test of whatever distinctive merits really 
attached' to the plans of its organizers. I have called that initial misfortune 
an irremediable one, because, although the rich men of America often give 
their money in support of educational enterprises with a lavishness that 
seems incomprehensible to a foreigner, they almost always prefer to act as 
" founders," even when they do not insist on attaching their family names to 
their gifts. The common human desire to create, to originate, to figure 



12 TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 

among the first, controls the course of their generosity. The argument which 
demonstrates that all money added to the endowment of an old college does 
ten times as much good as the same amount spent in founding a new one, has 
never been seriously disputed ; but the new schemes, nevertheless, are the 
ones to which the wealth of the wealthy may be most easily attracted. Fifty 
years ago, furthermore, the sense of locality was as strong here as it now is 
in the lesser American cities, so that the pride of citizenship could be suc- 
cessfully appealed to for stirring a man's generosity in behalf of any project 
calculated to ennoble the name and fame of his native town. But to-day this 
feeling is so completely obliterated that, to the minds of most of the two 
millions of people here congregated, the name "New York City " means just 
what the name " London " did to the mind of Dr. Johnson ; — it means simply 
" the world." One's personal pride in the j^resent planet — as distinguished 
from the sun or the moon, or any less familiar member of the universe — 
may be very sincere and hearty, but it is too vague a sentiment to prompt the 
loctsening of one's purse-strings ; it cannot be traded upon as can the West- 
ern man's fierce desire to see Chicago exalted above St. Louis. The exist- 
ence of " the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York" 
(a body having a sort of visitorial power in respect to the institutions of 
highe. education chartered by the State, but authorized also to itself confer 
academic degrees), and of " the College of the City of New York " (which was 
formerly called " the Free Academy," and which is carried on by the city 
government as a sort of crown to the free public school system, being the 
only American college maintained by municipal taxes), are two facts which 
serve to impair still further the local significance of the title of the institution 
which I am describing ; because its identity is often confused with those 
others in the popular mind. The friends of Columbia College also insist 
that the efforts of that wealthy corporation, in enlarging the number and scope 
of its courses and departments, have won for it the position of the real uni- 
versity of the metropolis. 

All these things prove the hopelessness of ever attracting an endowment 
adequate to the plans of the founders. A conviction of this truth has so dis- 
heartened such sanguine souls as have in recent years made zealous attempts 
in that direction, that some of them have been driven to the other extreme 
and have urged that, in lack of funds for its full development, the under- 
graduate department ought to be suspended or abolished. The indignant 
negative which checked a serious attempt of this sort in i8Si, following the 
lesser attempts of three and four years earlier, demonstrated the perpetuity 
of the University. Its entire suppression is just as impossible as its. magnifi- 
cent enlargement. No man or body of men will ever give money enough to 
effect the latter, but hundreds of its graduates will always contribute a suffi- 
ciency of their dollars to prevent the former, when the pinch really comes. 
There is a very creditable trait in the American character which ensures an 
enormous amount of latent vitality to even the poorest one of our colleges 



CASTLE SOLITUDE IN THE METROPOLIS. 13 

that has managed in some way to outlive its infancy. Almost every alum- 
nus takes pride enough in his bachelor's degree to be willing to help away 
from the verge of bankruptcy the institution which conferred it. He may 
not be generous enough to help it achieve success, but he will rally to its 
rescue when he sees it approaching actual dissolution. Such a prospect 
makes a very strong appeal to his self-love, for no man likes to confess that 
" the college where he graduated " is really defunct. The admission seems 
a sort of personal stigma upon his early life. It may be too poor an affair to 
boast about, or to send his sons to, or to help push into prosperity ; but he is 
not quite willing to see it die. 

The New York University, however, is very far from being the poorest 
one among our four hundred American colleges. On the contrary, as soon as a 
dozen or twenty of the oldest and richest of them have been passed by, it can 
easily stand comparison to almost anyone of the others.- The contemptuous 
tone with which its educational advantages are belittled by the novelist whom 
I have quoted, and by others, is not based upon justice, — however much it 
may add to the literary effect of their remarks. The half-century catalogue 
of instructors and alumni exhibits as large a proportion of noteworthy names 
as any similar collection which is known to me. The professors who have 
distinguished themselves in science and literature ; the graduates who have 
won fame and recognition as leaders in the various walks of active life, are 
as numerous as those whom any other college of its size can boast of. The 
circumstance which obscures this truth is the overshadowing immensity 
of the city itself, which seems to dwarf whatever comes into comparison 
with it. Stat magni nominis itmbra. Situated elsewhere, the University 
might easily overshadow its surroundings, and give tone and distinction to 
some quiet village which would otherwise remain obscure. Many a lesser 
school has done this, and thereby ensured for itself the respect and deference 
of casual writers, who carelessly sneer at the University as if it were of 
smaller consequence. It is its fate to be misjudged and condemned in popular 
repute, not for lack of merits of its own, but because it has the misfortune to 
take the name of the great city in vain. Even Columbia College, ranking 
fourth in age and almost first in wealth among such foundations in America, 
is hardly recognized as a factor in the active life of the metropolis. This 
was well shown by the remark which its most authoritative newspaper made, a 
few years ago, in commenting on the great gains that had resulted to Har- 
vard from the policy of absolute publicity with respect to the college finances : 
"Our own Columbia treats its affairs as if they were the affairs of a pri- 
vate business partnership, — that is, keeps the details of its management 
more secret than the law allows any banking corporation to keep theirs. * * 
Columbia is suffering, and must always suffer, from this mistaken policy. 
There is about as much known, and as much interest felt, about her by the 
ordinary New Yorker as about Trinity Church or the Sailors' Snug Harbor." 
— The Nation, July 7, 1 881, p. 2. 



14 TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 

I believe that the Medical School of the University has always been con- 
ducted at a distance of a mile or more from the Square ; and the School of 
Pharmacy has also, in recent years, been removed from the University Build- 
ing ; but the Law School still flourishes there, as well as the Department of 
Science and Arts, with its four undergraduate classes of Seniors, Juniors, 
Sophomores and Freshmen. It happens, therefore, that, for five days of the 
week, between ten in the morning and two in the afternoon, something like 
two hundred people frequent the corridors in the lower part of the Building, 
and the lecture-rooms which open out from them. Several societies likewise 
have their halls and offices there, and the chapel in the center is usually 
rented to some religious organization which holds service in it on Sundays, 
and occasionally on the evenings of other days. The janitor and his family, 
and the servants in his employ, live upon the ground floor. His office or 
reception-room is not adjacent, however, to either one of the five entrances 
of the Building; and as these entrances face upon three different streets, and 
are left unlocked from daybreak until ten o'clock at night, whoever pleases 
may visit the Building without attracting any one's observation, either outside 
or inside. Tenants may of course gain admission by their latch-keys at any 
hour nf the night, and they also know how to arouse the janitor by rapping on 
a cenain secluded window ; but that worthy is freed from the attacks of the 
general public, after his hour of locking-up, for no bell-pull or other device 
exists by which any casual visitor may intcrrujit the nightly quiet of the Uni- 
versity. He might kick and pound for an hour upon its ponderous portals 
without being heard inside, and without arousing any one's protest except, 
perchance, that of a passing policeman. There is no other house in the world 
where the conditions of management combine so completely to protect each 
individual inhabitant from casual observation or deliberate espionage. The 
identity of the forty or fifty people who live there is merged in the mass of 
two hundred or more who daily visit there; and the attempt to watch the 
incomings and outgoings of any particular one of them would be extremely 
difficult, even if all passed through a single doorway. But as all may in fact 
choose between five doorways, — opening on three separate streets, to the 
north, west and south, — no effective watch can be kept except by the estab- 
lishment of a spy system so elaborate as to defeat its own object by attracting 
notice to itself. 

This peculiarity of the place was put into prominence by the novelist 
whom I have quoted, because the plausibility of his story of " Cecil Dreeme " 
depended entirely upon the degree of his success in convincing his readers of 
the singular fact. He caused the heroine of the tale to live for a long time, 
disguised as a man, in a solitary chamber of the University, to which she had 
taken flight in order to escape marriage with the villain of the tale (who also 
had a room there, though he resided elsewhere), to whom she had been 
pledged by her wealthy but mercenary father. This father believed she had 
committed suicide, and he buried with due solemnity the body of another un- 



CASTLE SOLITUDE LY THE METROPOLIS. 15 

fortunate young woman, wliich was found floating in the river, and was identi- 
fied as liis daughter's. The daughter, living in disguise as " Cecil Dreeme, 
artist," never ventured into the open air except by night, and thus escaped recog- 
nition by her kindred and fashionable friends whose mansions were in the 
immediate neighborhood. Now, there is no other habitation in the city 
where such singular conduct could fail to attract suspicious observation to 
the person who practiced it ; and such observation would necessarily mean 
discovery when the person to whom it attached was a woman in disguise. 
But no conduct of dwellers in the University is accounted singular, or sus- 
picious or noticeable. No one of them pretends to know or care about any 
other one, — whether he be in or out, ill or well, rich or poor, alive or dead! 
I may have troops of friends call upon me daily, or I may seclude myself for 
months without letting a creature cross my threshold, and no outsider need 
be aware of either circumstance ; not even the janitor need know whether I 
am enjoying a sociable or a solitary life. The novelist told the simple truth 
in saying: " IVc can live here in completer privacy than anywhere in Christendom. 
D.iggerojii, De Bogus, or Madamoiselle De Mollets might rendezvous with my 
neighbor, and I never be the wiser. "'^ 



' The main incident of the story turns upon the disguise of a woman as a man, and we are 
bound to say that we remember no instance of a like success, — perfectly pure, modest and 
spirited, — short of Viola and Rosalind. * * * He has invested this building with a mysterious, 
romantic interest far beyond anything hitherto attained by our local writers. We must protest 
against some of the charges of shabbiness, decay and flimsiness he has brought against an edifice 
of very fair architectural pretensions. The marble staircase would be a very respectable flight of 
steps in any college edifice of the old world, and you can ascend without any fear of flakes of 
whitewash. Mr. Winthrop should have known that the boys did not mob their professors and 
that such men as * * *-are not mullein stalks. An occasional injustice must, however, be 
pardoned to the satirist. His hits are in the main as well deserved as they are sharp. — Sketch 
of Winthrop, in " Supplement to Duyckinck's History of American Literature " (iS65 ; p. 151). 

" The Life and Poems of Theodore Winthrop " edited by his sister, with portrait (N. Y. : 
H. Holt & Co., 1884, pp. 313), is a book which I hoped might supply much quotable materia!, 
but it really contains no allusion whatever to the fact of his living in the University, and it ac- 
credits the writing of " Cecil Dreeme" to the year i860 only by implication. That sketch shows 
such intimate knowledge and sympathetic appreciation of the Building's queerness, however, as 
to force the conviction that the author must have resided in it during some part of the thirteen 
years which he lived after graduating at Yale. If not, he must have been on intimate terms 
with some of the residents, and made frequent visitations at their chambers. Wintlirop was 
born at New Haven, September 22, 1828, and was killed at Great Bethel, Virginia, June 10, 
1861, in the earliest skirmish of the civil war. " He fell nearer to the enemy's works than any 
other man went during the fight." If fame is worth dying for (which I doubt), he was singularly 
fortunate in his death. It made him the representative man of an era. It gave a strange stir 
and intensity to the patriotic passion for Union. It proclaimed that the very best youth of the 
North were bound to do battle in its defense. As his biographer truly says, " his memory was 
idealized and worshiped by the young men of that day." Even the youngest of us gave him 
reverent recognition as the typical hero of a troublous time. Thus, the books which appeared 
soon after his death (for he had won no wide literary reputation while living) assumed a factitious 
importance, and were ensured a remarkably wide circulation. I say nothing against their fully 
deserving this as pieces of literature. I merely record the fact that their great vogue was due to 



1 6 TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 

Why, then, is this not an ideal haunt for the assassin, the counterfeiter 
and the adventuress ? What has prevented its becoming a very Alsatia of 
disreputable refugees and enemies of society? What protection exists for 
the tenant's property or life, if unobserved access may be had by every one 
to these solitary corridors until ten o'clock at night, and no police super- 
vision whatever is maintained ? The answer to the latter question easily is, 
that, as robbers and murderers seek those places which are most promising 
of spoils, they avoid the University because of a belief that it contains noth- 
ing worth the trouble of stealing. Its appearance is altogether too prison- 
like for attracting any escaped jail-birds who may chance to be fluttering be- 
neath the trees of the Square. To the minds of the ignorant, the word 
" college " or " university " is often synonymous with or suggestive of 
" medical-school "; and, as the chief function of such schools is believed to 
be the dissection of a vast quantity of human bodies, the walls which conceal 
this uncanny work are looked upon with a good deal of superstitious dread 
and abhorrence. The casual sneak-thief has a healthy fear of prowling for 
plunder in the dark and dingy halls of the University, lest "the medical 
students," who are presumably secreted there with their carving-knives, 
shou) ' seize upon and devour him. The story already quoted concerning the 
terror shown by the negro boot-black in the artist's studio, illustrates this 
same tradition, as to the dangers of entering the Building, which has wide 
currency in all the region round about it. Another theory in reference to its 
occupants was disclosed to me as I sat in the Square, one Monday evening, 
near the bench where two washerwomen were resting with their bundles. 
The subject of their conversation was the then newly-built apartment-house 
called " The Benedick," whose red-brick front is on a line with the Uni- 
versity's, and not many rods to the south of it, and whose chambers were de- 
signed and advertised for the occupancy of men only. " It 's all the same as 
the big stone buildin' where they keeps the old bachelors," said one of the 
women, gravely. " You see the popilation has growed since the city built it for 
'em, long ago, and so they got too crowded like. That 's why the new brick 
house was built to put some of 'em in." This conception of an infirmary or 
retreat for " the old bachelors," as a sort of class apart, under municipal pro- 
tection and authority, doubtless has less vogue than the notion of a vast dis- 
secting-room or chamber-of-horrors ; but I think it probable that most of such 
evil-disposed frequenters of the locality as may know that there are other 
lodgers in the University besides " the medical students," believe those 
others to be bachelors. They believe them to be impecunious ones also, for 
they cannot conceive of a man's living in so funereal a pile except under 

the " blood and iron " behind them. We felt that the pen which traced them had been dipped 
in gunpowder ; that the pages smelled of the cannon smoke. We had a fierce longing to share 
somewhat in the personality of this fine gentleman and scholar who had been fated first to fall. 
We were proud to read an author of whom we could rightly say, in sad and wrathful defiance : 
" A better or a braver man never rode in battle's van." 



CASTLE SOLITUDE IN THE METROPOLIS. 17 

pressure of poverty. Furthermore, even if an adventurous thief managed to 
break into a half-dozen apartments without detection, he might not find any- 
thing better than empty recitation-benches, or dusty laboratory apparatus, or 
full-length " portraits of the chancellors," or ponderous law tomes, — for most 
of the doors of the public rooms bear no labels, and they look exactly like 
those of the adjoining pdvate rooms, which also, in many cases, make no 
showing of the tenants' names. But if a thief had the luck to avoid the col- 
legiate chambers, and penetrate a private room in the owner's absence, the 
chance for plunder would still be much poorer than in a private house. It 
mav fairly be assumed, of men who live alone, that the personal possessions 
with which they surround themselves — even when they have the ability to in- 
dulge in a good degree of splendor and luxury — are not of that compact and 
portable sort dear to the heart of the housebreaker. A bachelor, if he likes to 
have good furniture about him, may buy a costly sideboard to gratify that lik- 
ing ; but his ideal of lavishness in fitting it up will be more apt to take the 
shape of potables than of silver-plate. Hence the intelligent burglar's chief 
interest centers upon family life ; for well he knows that, where the wife 
is, there shall the solid silver-ware be found also. I am not forgetful of the 
wide advertisement that the newspapers gave in 1883 to the public auction of 
pictures and bric-a-brac which netted $50,000 to a departing tenant of the 
University (though some of the choicest of the treasures accumulated in his 
chambers, rumor said, were reserved from the sale) ; but I do not think the 
prevalent belief as to the unwealthy character of the other tenants was 
thereby diminished at all. If the thieves read about the auction, they must 
also have read that the owner of the collections which brought such " big 
money " was the chief editor of a prominent daily newspaper, and that he 
kept a body-servant continually guarding his door. They must have rated 
him as an entire exception to the ordinary inhabitants of such a prison, whose 
possessions offer, ostensibly as well as actually, no real temptation to a 
robber. It would be hard to name another lodging-house in the city where 
the very nature of things makes the danger of sneak-thievery so slight. 

Some of the same considerations which deter the lower order of criminals 
from attempting to prey upon the tenants of the Building deter also the 
higher order of criminals from becoming tenants there, as a means of more 
secretly concocting their schemes for preying upon society in general. Such 
birds-of-a-feather, however much they may like to hide themselves from the 
observation of the police, are very generally inclined to flock together ; and 
they are undoubtedly wise in believing that such procedure offers them the 
best chance of individual concealment. A man of evil-conscience looks upon 
solitude as a supreme terror; he cannot endure continued isolation; " the pro- 
found gloom of the University would turn his brain." It is about the last 
place in the world, therefore, where a bad woman would consent to seclude 
herself ; though the entire truthfulness (so far as practicability goes) of the 
story of "Cecil Dreeme's " concealment there shows that no other place ex- 



i8 TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 

ists in the world where such seclusion could be made so complete. This 
peculiar possibility often gives rise to considerable verbal banter, represent- 
ing each bachelor tenant as the proprietor of a sort of harem ; and a dis- 
reputable daily newspaper once went so far as to publish silly stories of this 
kind, with the serious " business " purpose of impairing the influence of a 
rival sheet in local politics. As a matter of fact, however, there is probably 
no other public house in the city where the conditions of existence offer so 
few temptations to indulgence in that particular sort of " immorality." Such 
women as are encountered here exhibit in a pre-eminent degree the supreme 
virtue of minding their own business. They give no occasion or pretext for 
any gossip or tittle-tattle or scandal, like that which is continually cropping 
out in every hotel or boarding-house. If, therefore, a bachelor resident of 
the University is disposed " to sport with Amaryllis in the shade," the chosen 
scene of such indulgence seems more likely to be the hotel or boarding- 
house than his own mysterious home. Since, not being at hand, she must 
definitely be sought, it is manifestly more easy as well as more prudent thus 
to meet her on neutral ground, or even in her personal and private haunts, 
than to escort or summon her to his own grim chambers. No difficulty exists, 
in anv city where a million of the human race are herded, to prevent a man 
ana woman from living together, though unmarried, with entire privacy and 
concealment ; and no city of that size can maintain a hotel — whether large or 
small, magnificent or humble, fashionable or exclusive — in the possession of 
machinery powerful enough to exclude such unwedded pairs. " The nature 
of things," on the other hand, seems sufficient to exclude them from the Uni- 
versity ; for I can conceive of no place where the mutual wearisomeness which 
always ends that sort of relationship would be more quickly developed. 

Nevertheless, though a most unsuitable place for the keeping of a mis- 
tress, the Castle might conceivably supply an acceptable home for the shelter 
of a wife, provided her tastes were unconventional enough to be in sympathy 
with such solitary surroundings. Many a lonely dweller here has doubtless 
dreamed wistfully of these as a charming background for some new Paul-and- 
Virginia business, wherein he himself might play a most delighted and de- 
voted part, — " the world forgetting, by the world forgot." Indeed, the dream 
may have been realized, for aught that I know to the contrary. I possess a 
vague impression that one or two married pairs have at times had a place 
among my contemporaries in the Building; but, if this were so, they must 
have tired of it quickly, for I think that all the long-term stayers are single 
men. I recall, too, the fact that an acquaintance of mine, who came back to 
live here in his bachelor chambers, during the summer months while his wife 
took an outing in Europe, spoke regretfully of the hopeless gap between the 
two kinds of existence. He was happy in his married life, and was too gen- 
erous to wish to deprive his wife of such happiness as she found in "society"; 
but, he thought, " if madame might really be inspired to throw it all over- 
board, in order to share a free life with me in this peaceful solitude, — ah! 



CASTLE SOLITUDE IN THE METROPOLIS. 



19 



tliat zvould be fine ! " His notion was that such existence might continuously 
supply the same sort of zest which a man briefly secures by dragging his wife 
off to some remote mountain or wilderness or mining-camp, "where there are 
no other women around, to keep her neck tightly chained beneath the yoke of 
conformity." The fun and freedom of the mining-camp experience are some- 
what impaired, however, by the wife's consciousness of eccentricity : she at- 
tracts too much attention, and is gazed at too curiously, as the only present 
specimen of her sex. But' in the solitude of the University she would attract 
no notice at all, for a great many other women are to be seen there, silently 
going their own separate ways. " They never speak as they pass by." The 
tomb-like atmosphere of the corridors does not encourage loitering or socia- 
bility. People hasten through them as speedily as possible and disappear 
into their several chambers. No one wastes time in looking at any one else, 
or curiosity in speculating about any one else. No decently-dressed visitor, 
whether man or woman, who goes directly along, as if on business bent, is 
ever questioned by the janitor. 

That worthy, however, makes vigorous warfare on all evident intruders ; 
and it is unusual for beggars, tramps, pedlars or other pests to get beyond 
his office. His wife and family dwell with him upon the ground floor, as well 
as two or three female servants. Washerwomen regularly call for clothes in 
all parts of the Building. In the artists' studios at the top, women and girls 
often pose as models. A charitable society has an office, presided over by a 
woman, which is frequently visited by the lady managers. Another apartment 
has been honored, I believe, in times past, by fashionable maidens attending 
their music lessons. More women than men are attracted to the public re- 
ligious services which are held in the chapel on Sundays, and on the even- 
ings of certain other days. A physician's office, long established here, doubt- 
less has its due proportion of feminine patients. The storage of household 
effects in the basement is sometimes superintended by the women who own 
them. The professors' wives and daughters presumably make the University 
an occasional rendezvous. Serious argument has been offered in favor of 
opening its lecture and recitation-rooms to lady students, or of having the pro- 
fessors instruct them in private classes; while, on the other hand, " the an- 
nual reception of the graduating class " draws hither the sisters and cousins 
and other girl friends thereof, to make the grim corridors gay for a few hours 
with music and dancing. Thus, for one reason or another, a great variety of 
womankind have proper business within the walls of the University; and the 
going or coming of any individual woman is no more noticed nor thought of 
than the going or coming of a man. The peculiarity of the place is. that its 
atmosphere forces every one to stick strictly to business ; to maintain a per- 
sonal isolation and reserve ; to be solitary, exclusive, unobservant and self- 
absorbed. In the same way that, as Winthrop said, " its publicity makes 
privacy," so does its unique capacity for the complete concealment of a 
woman keep it singularly free from scandal. A bachelor resident has a 



20 TE.V THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 

serene consciousness that the inquisitive eyes which would watch his move- 
ments in any lodging-house or hotel, and the idle tongues which would there 
set afloat silly stories of his " undue attentions " to any women of the place 
towards whom he showed a chance kindness or civility, cannot exist in the 
University. A married resident knows likewise that here his wife is pro- 
tected not only from all such invidious gossip, but from all contact with or 
suggestion of the sort of social evil which that gossip represents. 

I have quoted the published testimony of many witnesses to show that 
the outward appearance of the Building is apt to suggest the notion of a castle 
to the mind of a stranger; but I do not consider this circumstance of any 
great importance except as a coincidence. " Walls do not a prison make " ; 
and it is not because of its stone turrets and battlements that I account my 
home a castle. Dotniis sua cuiqiie est tutissimum rcfugiitm. " Every man's 
house," as Lord Chatham said, "is called his castle. Why? Because it is 
surrounded by a moat, or defended by a wall .'' No. It may be a straw-built 
hut ; the wind may whistle around it, the rain may enter it, — but the king 
cannot." Personal freedom, in other words, is what is distinctively predi- 
cated by the " castle " simile ; and the place where the largest amount of this 
is attainable by any one is inside his own doorway. The largest amount 
wh'ich he actually obtains there is apt to be small, however; for, though it is 
the general habit of people to speak of individual liberty as a thing supremely 
desirable, they are not generally willing to pay the price which it costs. They 
may occasionally make sacrifices for a brief taste of it, but, as a regular diet, 
there are other things which better suit their digestion. The ordinary ambi- 
tion of people is to complicate rather than to simplify the machinery of their 
lives, and the ordinary result of success is that they become slaves to the 
machine. They welcome to the control of the castle a tyrant more relentless 
than any law-defying king could ever have been, and they pay him most 
liberally for robbing them of the last shred and atom of privacy and inde- 
pendence. " Custom " is the admired Juggernaut under whose wheels they 
long to be rolled until they become as flat and undistinguishable as a row of 
postage stamps. Instead of the old, heroic, "Ave ! Ccssar, Imperator I Mori- 
tiiri te saliitaiit P' these self-immolating moderns seem to cry : 

" Hurrah for the Brother of the Sun ! Hurrah for the Father of the Moon 1 
In all the world there's none like Quashiboo. 

Buffalo of buffaloes ! Bull of bulls ! He sits on a throne of his subjects' skulls. 
And if he needs more to play at foot-ball, ours all for him — all ! all ! 
Huggabejee ! Huggabajoo ! Hail, Lord and Emperor of Bugaboo ! " 

The perfection of creature-comfort — the highest imaginable ideal of 
purely physical well-being and material ease — may be found in the great 
country houses and the London mansions of the wealthy men of England. 
" No set of tellurians at least can affect to despise them. The descendants 
of Adam, the world over, can show nothing better." As machines for the 
dispensing of hospitality, nothing so complete exists elsewhere on this planet. 



CASTLE SOLITUDE IN THE METROPOLIS. 21 

The visitor is charmed and delighted with the admirably effective devices by 
which his personal ease and tranquillity are at all times ensured. Yet the 
chief feeling left upon my mind, by a contemplation of these wonderfully fine 
establishments, has always been one of pity for the mental serfdom which the 
elaborateness of their management necessarily entails upon the proud pro- 
prietors. The " castle " ideal is completely obliterated. The ostensible own- 
ers have no right of initiative, — no power to gratify any personal freak or 
whim. The real rulers are the so-called servants, who lord it over the master 
and mistress with a rod of iron. The movements of the latter must be as 
unvarying as the movements of automatons, or the smoothness and harmony 
of the play will be spoiled. If the chief actors attempt to vary the monotony 
by interpolations in the traditional text, the people behind the scenes ring 
down the curtain, and the show is stopped. The lives of the wealthy seem 
generally like a sort of clock-work, run for the benefit of a vast body of vassals 
and retainers, whose comfort depends upon the regularity of that running. 
No matter, therefore, how pronounced an individuality a man may have been 
given by nature, he is powerless to assert it in the presence of this pervasive 
and uncompromising opposition. The mere dead- weight of numbers is 
against him. The combined interest which all his hirelings have, in keeping 
him moving inside the conventional groove, finally conquers any impulse of 
his own to move out of it. Their opposition — though silent, and passive, and 
respectful and decorous — is irresistible because of its supreme stolidity. 
Having no heat nor passion, it never flags nor tires ; and, after the master's 
collisions with it have been numerous enough to produce intellectual weari- 
ness, he always abandons the game as not worth the candle, and submits to 
the inevitable necessity of living in strict accordance with the ideal which 
his servants have marked out for him as correct. The certainty of such 
ultimate submission is shown by the old story of the coachman who, when 
asked to bring his master a pitcher of water, respectfully urged that such 
service was the proper function of the butler. " Being a reasonable man, 
the master admitted the conventional justice of this, and ordered him to 
harness the horses and transport the pitcher-bearing butler to the well which 
was a few rods distant." If people laugh at the coachman's punishment, it 
is because they lack the philosophy to see that the master was the worse 
punished. The mental wear of thus asserting himself was far more annoy- 
ing to him than the slight physical labor was to his coachman ; and it is to 
be presumed that he either changed his policy or ended his life in an asylum. 
The highly-organized social system of England, with its strictly-defined 
grades and " classes," produces various creditable results ; but one of its 
most obtrusively characteristic results is the prominent development given to 
that unlovely trait in human nature which causes a man to fawn on those of 
his race who are classed above him, and to spurn those who are classed be- 
low. This is why the English are so stil||d and strait-laced in their manners 
and personal behavior. " Self-suppression is the lesson which the system 



2 2 TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 

constantly inculcates, by precept and by very strong example." If a man ex- 
pects to " get on," he must adapt his notions and conduct as closely as pos- 
sible to those of " the class just above " ; and he is under the constant pressure 
of temptation to so conduct himself as to deceive others into thinking that he 
has " got on," in advance of the fact. No scheme could be better devised 
for producing artificiality and uniformity, and for concealing every trace of 
" nature " ; and if any Englishman, from the highest to the lowest, pro- 
fesses that he is not in some degree affected by this fundamental fact of 
his environment, he declares that he is more than human. In every civ- 
ilized' country the struggle to "keep up appearances" absorbs most of 
the energy of the human race; but the conditions of existence in England 
cause the struggle to rage there with phenomenal intensity and obtrusive- 
ness. The inevitable compulsion under which each class imitates " its bet- 
ters," results, of course, in the transfer of the same ideal from the richest to 
the poorest. As the chief ambition of the wealthy is to own an establishment 
so vast that the machinery for managing it obliterates the owner's personality, 
the chief vanity of the very poor is to boast the ability to hire some one still 
poorer, for a " slavey," and to put their necks under the yoke of her caprice 
and metficiency. No Englishman feels that he is quite respectable unless he 
makes his life in some way dependent upon a social inferior whom he can 
nominally command, — unless he occasionally postures, in one guise or an- 
other, as "an employer. "^ The universal prevalence of this habit-of-mind is 
illustrated by the story (otherwise pointless) of a certain " literary discus- 
sion " in which the first speaker indignantly asks : " Do you suppose there 's 
any truth in the rumor that Lord Suchaplace didn't really write his recently 
published book of poems.' " and the second speaker says, with languid sur- 
prise : " Write 'em .-' Why should he .' I never heard that he was such a 
stingy man. Of course he employed a servant to make the book for him." 
The joke implied in this matter-of-fact stripping off of the last shred of re- 
sponsibility, in a case essentially personal, is relished by everybody, because 



'There is no nation in the world that has so acute a sense of the value, almost the necessity, 
of wealth for human intercourse as the EngUsh nation. They silently accept the maxim, " A 
large income is a necessary of life " ; and they class each other according to the scale of their 
establishments, looking up with unfeigned reverence to those who have many servants, many 
horses, and gigantic houses where a great hospitality is dispensed. An ordinary Englishman 
thinks he has failed in life, and his friends are of the same opinion, if he does not arrive at the 
ability to imitate this style and state, at least in a minor degree. I think it deeply to be deplored 
that an expenditure far beyond what can be met by the physical or intellectual labor of ordinary 
workers should be thought necessary, in order that people may meet and talk in comfort. The 
big English house is a machine, which runs with unrivaled smoothness ; but it masters its master, 
it possesses its nominal possessor. George l!orro\v had the deepest sense of the Englishman's 
slavery to his big, well-ordered dwelling, and saw in it the cause of unnumbered anxieties, often 
ending in heart-disease, paralysis, bankruptcy, and in minor cases sacrificing all chance of leisure 
and quiet happiness. Many a land-owner li^s crippled himself by erecting a great house on his 
estate, — one of those huge, tasteless buildings that express nothing but pompous pride. — 
" Human Intercourse," by P. G. Hamerton, p. 145 (Boston: Roberts Bros., 1884, pp. 430). 



CASTLE SOLITUDE IN THE METROPOLIS. 23 

each one is secretly conscious of the many cases where he himself feels con- 
strained, for appearance's sake, "to employ a servant," in doing what might 
be more pleasantly and decently done by his own hands. I believe it was 
President Lincoln who remarked, in reference to the expressed amazement of 
some titled foreigner, over a newspaper statement that tire President some- 
times expedited matters by blacking his own boots: "Well, I've always 
noticed that the folks who are ashamed of doing any such proper act for 
themselves never have any scruples about blacking other people's boots ! " 
Perhaps the unpleasant necessity of continually " truckling to the class 
above " needs the counter irritant of rigid adherence to the custom of " em- 
ploying some one below," as a means of preserving to the Briton his self- 
respect. At all events, he is apt to look with contempt upon all fellow-beings 
who habitually perform certain personal offices without paid assistance. 
Poverty or penuriousness is the only explanation which he can assign for 
such conduct, — or for the use of water as a beverage. The drinking of 
" something better " seems, in its way, to the minds of " the lower classes," 
a token of affluence and "respectability." That belief, therefore, helps in- 
tensify their resentment of legal restrictions upon such indulgence, and to 
give political potency to their cry : 

" Damn your eyes, if ever you tries to rob a poor man of his beer ! " 

The " globe-trotting " proclivities of the well-to-do English, which have 
won for them the title of " a nation of travelers," seem to me perfectly ex- 
plained by the necessity they labor under of seeking abroad an antidote for 
their continuous self-suppression at home. " The great distinction which rank 
and money obtain in England must at times grow unspeakably irksome to those 
who spend their lives in the midst of its society." Unless they had the outer 
world to wreak themselves upon — unless they could occasionally break away 
from the self-imposed and ever-present thralldom of living in subjection to 
their servants — they would simply die from the cumulative pressure of their 
own eminent respectability ! When last I sojourned in the shadow of this, a 
decade ago, I had for a companion an excellent little book (newly published 
then, by a Yale graduate of '64) from which I 've already adapted a phrase 
or two, and from which I will now extract a longer paragraph, as well repre- 
senting my own observations on the spot. I have italicized the sentence 
which seems to best formulate the reason for the personal colorlessness of 
" society people," in all climes and countries : 

1 found everywhere an excessive respect of the individual for the sentiment of the mass — I 
mean in regard to behavior. In matters of opinion there is greater latitude than with us. Now- 
adays a man in England may believe anything he chooses ; the reason being, I suppose, that 
beliefs have not much root or practical importance. Authority seems to have left the domain of 
thought and literature, and to have invaded that of manners. Of the two sorts of tyranny, I think 
1 should prefer the first. I should rather be compelled to write my poetry in pentameters, and 
to speak with respect of the Church and the Government, than to be forever made to behave as 
other people dictate. I know Englishmen do not accept this as true of themselves. One of 



24 TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 

them, to whom I had hinted something of the sort, said, " Oh, I don't know; we do about as 
we please." Precisely; but they have lived so constantly in the eyes of other people, have got 
so used to conforming, that they never think of wanting to do what society would disapprove of. 
They have been so in tlie habii of subduing whatever 7iative individuality they possess, that they 
have at last got rid of it. Of course, it would be impossible to make them believe this. They 
mistake their inattention, the hostile front they present to the world, and their indifference to 
the strictures of foreigners when they are abroad, for real independence and a self-reliant ad- 
herence to nature. But there seems to me to be something conventional even about the rude 
and lounging manners of which they are so proud. It is like the " stand-at-ease " of soldiers. 
It would be highly improper and contrary to orders to do anything else. Englishmen appeared 
to me to be criticising themselves away ; but the age everywhere partakes of the tendency. It 
has come to attach great importance to proper externals, to seemliness, to a dignified and harmo- 
nious behavior. We all devote an exceedingly particular and microscopic care to our outward 
walk and conversation. This is true of Americans, and it is true of all educated English people ; 
but the disease reaches its extremest form among Englishmen of fashion and quality. — "Im- 
pressions of London Social Life," by E. S. Nadal, pp. 10-12 (New York : Scribners, 1875). 

The final words of the same book (pp. 217-223) seem also worth quoting 
heie, as a correct showing of the social conditions which exist in the Ameri- 
can metropolis. How such conditions are affected by aristocracy and by 
democracy seems to me excellently shown by thus contrasting the two great- 
est cities of the English-speaking race : 

There is no society in New York which corresponds to that of London or Paris, and any 
writer who attempts to make the idea that there is the key-note of his work will be likely to 
produce a silly, vulgar book. Whether or no there should be such societies, or whether, 
where they exist, they do good or harm, I do not say. I only say that there is no such society 
among us, and that novelists should not write as if there were. There are yet some unreasona- 
ble discriminations concerning employments among us, but it is certain that the movement of 
public sentiment has been strongly and rapidly towards democracy. There was, during the early 
years of our existence, an approach to a national aristocratic society. A governor or a senator, 
a judge, a commodore, or a general, was an aristocrat. Anybody who reflected or represented 
the dignity of the government was an aristocrat. This feeling continued till near the middle 
of the century, or until the second generation of statesmen had disappeared. It has now gone 
" where the woodbine twineth " to use the significant expression of the significant Jim Fisk. 
The extreme weakness of the aristocratic element among us at present is in part— in very small 
part — to be explained by the want of respect in our people. A plain man in this country cares 
nothing for the man who is above him ; is rather proud, and believes it to be a virtue, that he 
does not care. Nor does it appear a thing to be regretted that such a state of mind exists in 
the humbler citizen towards the greater one. It is well to have A admire B, if he is a person of 
superior rectitude, energy and intelligence. But what advantage will it be to society to have A 
admire B because B lives in a better house and may have a better dinner than A ? There 
is no need to put the cart before the horse. The value of veneration among the masses of men 
is obvious where they have anything to venerate. And there can be no want of the capacity 
for respect among our people. It is absurd to call this " a country in which superiorities are 
neither coveted nor respected." The contrary is the fact; the few real superiorities that we 
have are, perhaps, respected too much. The bulk of our reading public know enough to recog- 
nize what is excellent, but have not the critical self-confidence which is the property of educated 
men. They therefore fail to insist that the greatest men have their limitations and cannot in- 
elude everything ; but, in a kind of dazed reverie, accept whatever is told them. 

The national aristocratic society has disappeared with the disappearance of respect for the 
politician. What is called " position " is in this country now altogether local. This is neces- 
sarily true. A is known among his neighbors as a rich and decent person ; his wife and daugh- 



CASTLE SOLITUDE IN THE METROPOLIS. 



25 



ters are "nice " (the American for " noble "), either absolutely or relatively to the people around 
them. A has position therefore in his own town ; if he moves elsewhere he does not inevitably 
take it with him. Now, in very little and very simple communities, these ideas of position and 
precedent are most important. In a very great place, on the other hand, few men are large 
enough to be seen over the whole town. As a consequence, we see that New York is perhaps 
the most democratic town in the country. It has become so during the years in which it has 
been shooting into a position of such national and cosmopolitan importance. It is now quite as 
democratic a place as the inevitable varieties of accident and talent among men will permit it to be. 
The artifice of e.xclusiveness, which is sure to succeed in a smaller place, will not do here. 
People greatly desire to do what they find difficult to do. They do not care at all to do what they 
know they may do. Accordingly, in a town or city of moderate size, the people who wish to be 
thought better than their neighbors, and who have some little advantage to start with, are wise to 
keep to themselves. They thus prevent their neighbors from finding out that the excluded and 
the exclusives are just alike. They have for their ally that profound want of confidence of ordi- 
nary people in their own perceptions. But this is a device which will not do in a city of the size 
and wide-reaching importance of New York. What will the mover of commerce or politics over 
the face of the country care for the opinion of the gentlewoman around the corner, who thinks him 
vulgar ? Thus we see it to be impossible that any dominant society may exist in this country. 
The recognition of this fact should teach quiet to people inclined to be restless. It need not be 
unwelcome to the friend of man, for he will remember that democracy does not mean the tri- 
umph of utility over dignity and refinement, but that it means dignity and refinement for the 
many. Writers of fiction may regret the want of diversity and picturesqueness which the fact 
involves, but it is always well to know the truth ; if they desire to avoid vulgarity and the waste 
of such opportunities as they have, they must heed it. To make men and women interesting as 
members of society is denied them ; but should these writers have the wit to paint men and 
women as they are, the field is wide enough. There are on all sides people who are charming 
to contemplate, and whom it should be a pleasure to describe. 

The social life of America is ruled by the servants, just as relentlessly as 
that of England, but the tyranny takes a somewhat different shape, on ac- 
count of the changed environment. They rule here by their insolence and 
worthlessness (the result of a happy-go-lucky consciousness of ability to earn 
a livelihood, and "perhaps better their chances," whenever discharged by an 
employer), and not, as in England, by the mechanical perfection of their de- 
portment. An Englishman's servants are so proper and punctilious that 
they constrain him to perform his appointed function in the social machine 
with similar correctness and solemnity; but an American's are so pert and 
untrustworthy — so likely to desert him as soon as he has drilled them to a 
fair degree of efficiency, or stands in special need of their services — that they 
prevent the construction of any elaborate social machine whatever. I am 
aware, of course, that the non-existence of such a thing in the Western 
World is due, in a broad sense, to the sweep of democracy. There is simply 
no place for it in our free system of living, as is well shown by the writer 
whom I have just quoted. But as the impossibility of procuring a perma- 
nent retinue of personal servitors — a set of well-trained menials who can al- 
ways be depended upon to operate a complicated system of housekeeping, 
without jar or friction — is itself a direct result of the one-man-'s-as-good-as- 
another axiom, I think it right to make a point of asserting this one imme- 
diately practical part of the argument, in preference to the whole general 



26 TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 

truth. I know that, among the wealthy, there may be occasionally found a 
family whose womankind are gifted with such an unusual amount of execu- 
tive tact, combined with kindness of heart, that they compel " the servant 
question " to assume much the same settled phase which it has in the home 
of a well-to-do Englishman. I know that, among the multitude of luxurious- 
ly-appointed houses in this rich city, a few may be found whose smoothness 
of " movement " seems permanently assured, in spite of the democratic rest- 
lessness which pervades the very atmosphere. Nevertheless, I believe it 
may be safely assumed that, wherever two American matrons meet together 
under conditions favorable to an unreserved conversation, a prominent place 
in it will almost always be given to the trials and tribulations experienced at 
the hands of their " help." Like " politics " in the case of a pair of men 
similarly situated, this is one of the stock subjects to talk about, — a topic 
which may be presumed to challenge the interest and sympathetic attention 
of every housekeeper, — a " burning question " which in some degree embit- 
ters every such woman's life. If hotels and boarding-houses here attract a 
larger proportion of families than in England, it is not because the privacy 
and comforts of a home are prized less here than there. It is simply be- 
cause our womankind break down under the strain and serfdom resulting 
fi^m the effort to get any efHcient service out of the only class available for 
household hire : the ignorant and ill-trained domestics of an alien race. 
Whether the scale of the menage implies the presence of only one servant, 
or of a full dozen, the result is the same : the mistress of it is subjected to 
constant annovance and anxiety, until at last she " gives it up," and takes her 
husband and children to a hotel. ^ 

Hotel-life, in its turn, produces a sort of constraint analogous to that 
which crushes an English householder in the presence of his servants, but 
without the compensation which he enjoys in dignity and privacy and re- 
pose. Whoever inhabits a house to which another family besides his own 
may have access is always exposed to the danger of contact with people 
whose presence is disagreeable, whose acquaintanceship is undesirable, whose 
evil tongues produce gossip and backbiting, and whose evil acts result in 



'A few days after this paragraph was put in t\-pe, I came across a confirmation of it in a let- 
ter concerning "South-Coast Living in England." It was written in Devonshire, August S; 
and, as New Yorkers will generally recognize the writer as an entirely competent witness, on 
account of his extensive international experiences, I am glad to quote the paragraph which con- 
cerns my argument : " In America we are very fond of boasting of our superior comfort, but 
this consists in our having houses provided with every convenience and structural facility for 
comfort, in which, except for large incomes, real comfort is out of the question, for want of good 
service. In our own homes the miserable dependence on wretched servants makes life only 
diluted woe. In exceptional cases, and at great cost, people in America can enjoy comfort in 
their own houses ; but when we go away for the summer the comfort of the poorest watering- 
place in England is not to be had for love or money. It is a great mistake to suppose that we 
have the maximum of domestic comfort in America ; say what we will, that is reserved for 
England."' — W. J. Stillman, in the Nation, Aug. 27, 1S85, p. 169. 



CASTLE SOLITUDE IN THE METROPOLIS. 27 

public scandal. These and its other evident disadvantages render hotel-life 
necessarily restless and transitory. It is a make-shift; a temporary device 
for " getting along " until the arrival of some happier day when a better and 
more permanent mode of living can be sought elsewhere. A methodically- 
minded person, whose sense of locality is so strongly developed that he takes 
pleasure in thinking of his home as a fixture and finality, and hates to con- 
sider the possibility of " changing his spots like the leopard," see| in advance 
that every hotel continually threatens to utter the command, " Move on ! " 
This edict may come not only in the form of an outbreak of any one of the 
evils specified as latent in the situation, but in the form of increased rent, or 
of a transfer of the building to other owners or uses. These transfers in 
New York are so continuous, — the ebb and flow of particular classes of the 
population is so erratic, — that even if a man purchase a mansion, instead of 
merely hiring apartments, " in a genteel neighborhood," the fact of pro- 
prietorship gives no pledge of an extended stay there. A band of railway 
robbers may suddenly despoil him of his repose, or other invincible invaders 
may obliterate every trace of " gentility " from his surroundings. 

An additional social danger (which threatens the pride of permanent 
tenancy, if not the fact itself) results from the great length of the residence 
streets, which stretch across the island in unbroken east-and-west jjarallels, 
from river to river, — a distance of two full miles. I have already explained, 
in describing the topography of the city (p. 65), that there are more than fifty 
such streets (numbered successively northward from 7th st. to 59th st.) be- 
tween Washington Square and Central Park, a distance of two and a half 
miles, but that distinctive residential " character " attaches chiefly to the 
longitudinal thoroughfares of the island, which are called " avenues," and 
which are also parallel (in a north-and-south direction, at distances vary- 
ing from a fifth to a tenth of a mile), and which therefore intersect the 
" streets " at right angles. Fifth Avenue, the center or backbone of the sys- 
tem, has none but wealthy people for residents, while the houses of Twelfth 
Avenue, its westernmost parallel, and of Avenue D, its easternmost, on the 
opposite water-fronts, shelter none but very poor people. Each of the fifteen 
other parallel avenues between these extremes has a more-or-less generally 
recognized " character " of its own ; though there are, of course, great con- 
trasts between specific sections of the same avenue, that lie four or five miles 
apart. Nevertheless, the numbered east-and-west streets of the metropolitan 
" gridiron " are the ones that contain the vast bulk of our well-to-do people ; 
while, as the " character lines " arc drawn across them at right angles by the 
" avenues " (of greatly varving reputations), no single " street " can hope to 
have a uniform "character" for its whole two miles, — such as is accredited 
to Fifth Avenue's straight stretch of thrice that distance, from Washington 
Square to the Harlem. Hence results the social peril alluded to in the open- 
ing words of my paragraph : that the numerous people quite the reverse of 
"nice," who must of necessity occupy numerous houses at the river ends of 



28 TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 

each of these streets, will so conduct themselves as to give its distinctive 
numeral " a bad name." New Yorkers themselves may know, in such a case, 
that the central section of the street (to which the bisecting line of Fifth Ave- 
nue gives character and dignity) has a longer row of handsome houses, than 
are usually comprised in the whole of a fashionable street in London ; and 
that none but the most eminently respectable of residents are to be accred- 
ited to those houses. New Yorkers may know that proximity of a doorway 
to Fifth Avenue is denoted by the lowness of its number (i, 2, 3 and the like), 
and proximity to the water-side by a high number, like 600 or 700. But out- 
siders do not know these things, nor make any discrimination when they read 
the newspapers' appetizing stories of metropolitan vice and crime. A given 
street sometimes gets a sudden shove into national notoriety in this manner; 
and though fashionable folks may not feel forced to change their abodes on 
account of the evil deeds done in another neighborhood, many blocks away, 
the fact that such things are proclaimed as happening in " our street " must 
prove a bar to the development of much affection or enthusiasm for the par- 
ticular numeral which represents it. " Thirtieth Street," for example, is 
rather endeared to me personally because of a certain fine house there 
whose elegant hospitality has for twenty years been extended to me with un- 
varying kindness. The owner had built and occupied it, ten years or more 
before I knew him, at a time when the site seemed very far " up town." At 
first, indeed, I believe the house stood almost isolated between the Avenue 
and Broadway, though its individuality was soon swallowed up in the undis- 
tinguishable mass of " solid front " which has long connected the two. No 
doubt, the other houses in this front may be filled with treasures just as fine, 
and possibly some of the owners may have lived there nearly as long, in spite 
of the temptation to follow the wave of fashion that through all these years 
has been ever receding northward. But though " Thirtieth Street" thus 
privately appeals to me as a shining example of the truth that the possession 
of wealth does not inevitably debar a New Yorker from having a permanent 
home of his own, " Thirtieth Street," as projected on the mind of a casual 
reader of the newspapers, carries a definite suggestion of crime and ill-repute. 
In the western section of that street stands the " police station-house of the 
29th precinct," and the captain in command thereof is more talked about, for 
whatever reason, than any similar officer of the entire force. This excep- 
tional notoriety he is said to attribute to the exceptional difficulties inherent 
in his position, — as a result of the fact that within the limits of the region un- 
der his sway are included a majority of the great hotels and theaters, and (as 
their inevitable accompaniment) a large number of those resorts where the 
people who have been attracted to the hotels and theaters, from all parts of 
America, like to go "in search of whom they may be devoured by." Thus 
it happens that, as a vast floating population, of the sort which practitioners 
of " the profitable vices " best like to prey upon, always demand police at- 
tention, either for control or defense, within the boundaries of " the 29th," 



CASTLE SOLITUDE IN THE METROPOLIS. 



29 



the name of the street containing its station-house suffers somewhat by fall- 
ing under the shadow of their wickedness. But the name of the great cen- 
tral artery of the street system stands superior to all its offshoots, and the 
fact that it alone is held so high above reproach tempts me to quote the fol- 
lowing description, recently written by Joseph H. Howard, jr.: 

Whenever a house is for sale or rent in Fifth Avenue its residents feel a profound interest 
in the character of the inmates that are to be. They dread lest the mansion may be converted 
to unworthy uses ; lest they may be hourly shocked by a plebeian neighbor who is what they 
themselves were twenty years, or five years, or perhaps a few months before. Their vigilance 
is sleepless in this regard ; still they have often been compelled to buy out common tradesmen 
and ambitious courtesans, and enterprising blacklegs, who had purchased an abiding place in 
the socially sacred vicinage. It is the habit of New Yorkers to style Fifth Avenue the first 
street in America. So far as wealth and extent and uniformity of buildings go, it probably is. 
Beginning at Washington Square, it extends above Harlem ; and as far as Fifty-ninth Street, it 
is almost an unbroken line of brownstone palaces, while from that point up its magnificence is 
marvelous. The architecture is not only impressive, it is oppressive. Its great defect is in its 
monotony, which soon grows tiresome. A variation, a contrast — something much less ornate or 
elaborate — would be a relief. Its lack of enclosures, of ground, of grass-plats, of gardens, is a 
visual vice. Block after block, mile upon mile, of the same lofty brownstone, high stoop, 
broad-staired fronts wearies the eye. It is like the perpetual red brick, with white steps and 
white door and window facings for which Philadelphia has become proverbial. One longs in the 
avenue for more marble, more brick, more iron, more wood even — some change in the style and 
aspects of the somber-seeming houses, whose occupants, one fancies from the exterior, look, 
think, dress and act alike. One might go, it appears, into any drawing-room between Central 
Park and the old Washington Parade Ground, and he would be greeted with the same forms, 
see the same gestures, hear the same speeches. The stately mansions give the impression that 
they have all dreamed the same dream of beauty the same night, and in the morning have found 
it realized ; so they frown sternly upon one another, for each has what the other wished, and 
should have had alone. The slavish spirit of imitation with poverty of invention has spoiled 
the broad thoroughfare, where we should have had the Moorish and Gothic, Ionic and Doric 
order, Egyptian weight and Italian lightness, Tudor strength and Elizabeth picturesqueness. 
It is a grievous pity that where there is so much money there is so little taste. The sum of 
Fifth Avenue wealth is unquestionably far beyond that of any street in the country. The 
dwellings cost more ; the furniture and works of art are more expensive ; the incomes of the in- 
mates are larger and more prodigally spent than they are anywhere else on the continent. The 
interior of the houses is often gorgeous. Nothing within money's purchase, but much that per- 
fect taste would have suggested, seems omitted. There are few of the mansions that do not re- 
veal something like tawdriness in the excess of display. The outward eye is too much ad- 
dressed. The profusion is a trifle barbaric. The subtle suggestions of complete elegance are 
not there. Still, to those who have suffered from the absence of material comfort, or to those 
whose temperaments are voluptuous and indolent, as most poetic ones are, a feeling akin to 
happiness must be born of the splendid surroundings that belong to the homes of the Fifth 
Avenue rich. What soft velvet carpets are theirs; what handsome pictures; what rich cur- 
tains ; what charming frescoes ; what marbles of grace. The people who live side by side in the 
pretentious avenue know each other not. Knickerbocker and parvenu, the inheritor of wealth 
and the architect of his own fortune, the genuine gentleman and the vulgar snob, reside in the 
same block. One house is visited by the best and most distinguished ; the house adjoining by 
men who talk loud in suicidal syntax, and women who wear hollyhocks in their hair, and 
yellow dresses with pink trimmings. Here dwells an author whose works give him a large 
income ; over the way, a fellow who has a genius for money-getting, but who cannot solve the 
mysteries of spelling. Some of the most spacious and expensive mansions on the avenue 



3° 



TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 



always have a deserted look. Only the occupants and servants appear on tha high, carved 
stoop ; only the carriages the master of the establishment owns stop before the door. That 
family purchased a house in the avenue, but society has not accepted its members. They have 
nothing but a new fortune to recommend them. They must bide their time. The first genera- 
tion of the unrecognized fares hard. The second is educated and the third claims lineage — prates 
of " gentility," and frowns upon what its grandparents were. To get into the avenue and into 
its society are different things. They who struggle to enter certain circles are not wanted. 
Those who are indifferent to mere fashion are in request ; for not to seek, socially, is usually to 
be sought. Fifth Avenue is, indeed, one of the phenomena, and its growth one of the extraor- 
dinary developments of this peculiar age. — N. Y. cor. of the Philadelphia Press, May 14, 1S85. 

Thus, through this famous Avenue, my pen at last comes back to the 
curious Castle which stands at the head of it, and which I wish to celebrate 
for the contrast which the freedom attainable within its walls offers to the 
" servitude to servants " that generally prevails elsewhere. Though there 
may be some who actually enjoy personal contact with that sort of people, it 
can be fairly assumed that the majority would prefer to employ any practi- 
cable mechanical appliance to effect the same results. The majority recog- 
nize that the employment of the human machine is an evil, but they resort to 
it as an inevitable necessity, — because no substitute is obtainable for properly 
performing the drudgery of civilized life. When their servitude to this 
" ne. assary evil " grows absolutely unendurable from long continuance, they 
" make a break for the woods," and adopt a savage life for a while, — camp- 
ing out and " doing their own work," — or else they resort to travel, which, 
though it implies a great deal of dependence upon menials, at least frees the 
relationship from the personal element : no single one of them wields supreme 
power. A variety of gains, of course, results both from "the visiting of 
many cities " and from " roughing it in the wilds " ; but the chief gain possi- 
ble from either experience is the relief offered from wearing the yoke of 
conformity. It is only while freeil from the routine tyranny of his own 
house that a man can afford to be his simple self, to live naturally, to do just 
what he likes, to speak his own mind. 

When I assert, therefore, that a tenant of the University may there secure 
for himself continuously either the absolute isolation of a savage in the 
wilderness, or the relative isolation of a traveler through the cities, — that he 
may there approximate the ideal of intellectual independence exactly accord- 
ing to the degree of his willingness to sacrifice creature comforts and con- 
ventional luxuries, — I assert what can be truly said of no other house in the 
world. This statement of its distinctive quality shows, of course, why the 
Building makes so strong an appeal to those who can syinpathize with the cry 
of Shelley : " I will submit to any other species of torture than that of being 
bored to death by idle ladies and gentlemen." The conventional escape 
which is allowed an active young New Yorker of wealth and fashion from 
this sort of conventional torture, is "the running of a cattle ranch out in 
Montana." His frivolous friends do not resent as a personal affront such 
scurrying away for "the plains," and he may even print a book like " Hunt- 



CASTLE SOLITUDE IN THE METROPOLIS. 31 

ing Trips of a Ranchman " without rousing their languid consciousness to the 
fact that its existence is a significant tribute to their own utter uninteresting- 
ness. They will be apt to act differently, however, if, instead of hiding from 
them amid the mountains of Washington Territory, "where rolls the Oregon, 
and hears no sound save his own dashings," he ventures to pitch his lonely 
camp upon the castled crag that frowns o'er the wide acres of Washington 
Square. There, his seclusion seems rendered more profound by the muffled 
roar of a mighty city's traffic which ceaselessly .rolls its human tide along the 
great thoroughfares beyond ; and there, without the expense, and waste, and 
discomfort demanded by a sojourn in the Far West, he may " rough it " to his 
heart's content. But there, also, such unsocial conduct will be stigmatized 
as " crankiness " by the fine ladies and gentlemen who may chance to hear 
of it ; — for the notion of his permanently " camping out " in the midst of a 
great city, and leading the free and unsophisticated life of a gentle savage, in 
preference to taking part in their own " chromo civilization" which surrounds 
him, is a notion of such direct and unequivocal contempt for their authority 
that the sting of it has power to penetrate even the dense vanity and stolid 
self-complacency of such "social leaders." 

I entertain a theory as to a certain little room in the University, which is 
of about the size and shape of a hunter's hut, that the bachelor owner thereof 
never lets another human being enter it ; that he has no carpet, nor easy 
chairs, nor bed nor bed-clothing ; and that, when he spends a night in 
the den, he throws himself into a hammock, pulls a bear-skin or buffalo-pelt 
over his usual attire, for the sake of warmth, and, with a pistol-holster under 
his head for a pillow, gazes at the stars above the tree-tops until his closed 
eyes bring dreams of " old times among the Rockies." I imagine that he has 
a few grimy paintings and dusty war-relics for ornaments, and a few well-worn 
hooks for companions ; and that he takes pride in the cobwebs and dirt and 
disorder which characterize his abode, — rejoicing daily at the tangible testi- 
mony which they give of the uninterruptedness of his occupancy, and of the 
powerlessness of any menial intruder to " arrange " his possessions accord- 
ing to some cast-iron system of propriety. I knmv nothing at all of the life 
led by this man, or by any other one of my co-partners in the Castle. I only 
say that the sort of existence which I have attributed to him would be entirely 
practicable here, and would attract no nstice or comment. If a " society 
man " never really indulges in it, it is merely because he does not esteem 
such indulgence worth the sacrifice of all his fashionable affiliations ; — be- 
cause he deems it cheaper to get the same kind of thing by " roughing it " 
under the conventional conditions which do not arouse the resentment of the 
stay-at-homes of P'ifth Avenue. He knaws that " on the plains of the Far 
West" he can "run his own ranch" without seeming to them ridiculous or 
" cranky "; but he hardly has nerve enough to attempt the same experiment in 
their immediate presence, on the plains of Washington Square. 

Most men, however, even among those who hate conformity, do not care 



32 TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 

to make the sacrifice implied in securing complete independence from the 
employment of household servitors. They are satisfied if they can hold the 
latter at arm's length, in an impersonal relationship, such as results from the 
constant changes implied in traveling. The resources of modern science al- 
low a resident of the University to do this with a near approach to complete- 
ness. If he is willing, at the outset, to expend as much upon the fittings and 
permanent machinery of his apartments as would suftice to purchase a good- 
sized house in the country, he may enjoy a fair degree of comfort or even 
luxury, without the loss of liberty which such enjoyment usually implies. If 
he is willing to put in water-works, telephones, electric-lights, fireplaces, 
chimneys, elevators, floorings, doors, windows and walls (all these, without 
any written lease, and without any assurance, save the mere vis inertice of the 
place, that his " improvements " will not be made a pretext for an increase in 
his rent, or the transfer of his chambers to some one else), he may fairly sup- 
ply the more obtrusive physical deficiencies of a house that has been stand- 
ing for a half-century, that was built chiefly with a view to securing 
impressiveness of outward aspect, and that was not designed to be lived in at 
all. A man may readily arrange that a washer-woman shall bring and take 
his f-lothes without entering his door, or even setting eyes on him personally. 
He may adopt a similar scheme in reference to the waiters whom he summons 
by telephone from a restaurant to bring him food or drink. He may likewise 
keep a valet " on call," who never sees his face, or oppresses him with atten- 
tions that are not desired. The police, the fire alarm and the messenger serv- 
ice may be brought to his immediate command by the touching of a knob. 
In other words, if a man of wealth thinks it worth while, it is entirely practi- 
cable for him to arrange here a scheme by which he may employ a great many 
people to help him carry on quite an elegant and elaborate system of living, 
but in a quite impersonal way, — I mean without the friction and annoyance 
of direct contact and acquaintanceship. Perhaps no such man ever does in 
fact lead such a life here. All I insist upon is that the conditions exist here 
for leading it, as they exist nowhere else, and that the fact of leading it 
would excite no observation or comment. 

Pungent fumes from the chemical experiments in the laboratories may 
sometimes ascend the stairways, but nothing so suggestive of ordinary human 
life as the odor of food will often "be encountered there or in the connecting 
corridors. No cooking goes on in the Building, except that of the janitor's 
small menage, in the subterranean regions ; and it is only on great occasions 
that this is rank enough to smell to heaven. Hotels, restaurants, and board- 
ing-houses, of all styles and prices, may be found within a half-mile radius, 
and in these the tenants of the Castle may be presumed to take most of their 
solitary repasts. Breakfasts are regularly brought in to the chambers of some 
of them, however; and such as possess telephone connection no doubt use it 
to summon in the more extensive meals of the day, whenever bad weather or 
indolence disposes them to avoid the trouble of going out. The janitor, in 



CASTLE SOLITUDE IN THE METROPOLIS. 



ZZ 



addition to his regular salary for general services, is paid a certain small per- 
centage on the rents, as a device for stimulating his activity and promptness 
in making the quarterly collections thereof; but the power of this stimulus 
is more than offset by a stimulus of the opposite sort, — an incentive to dila- 
toriness, — which attaches to the fact that the janitor's income is much more 
largely affected by his success in persuading' tenants to employ his servants. 
He generally succeeds in impressing each new-comer that it is an unwritten 
law of the place that they should be thus employed ; and, as it is easier for 
the new-comer to submit to the existing scheme than to devise a substitute 
for it, I suppose that most of the lodgers' rooms are cared for in this way: 
that is, the janitor is paid a fixed monthly stipend for the services of his 
servants, and is held responsible for their efficiency and honesty. At a cer- 
tain hour of the day they have access to the tenant's rooms and " put things 
in order " there ; but he exercises no personal authority over them, and, if 
their routine work is not satisfactory, his complaint is not made to them per- 
sonally but to their employer. The wages which the janitor agrees to pay his 
servants being necessarily a fixed quantity, whether they have many or few 
rooms to care for, it is evidently for his interest that the number should be 
many rather than few. Thus it comes about that the janitor's percentage on 
the promptly-paid rent of a tenant who renders no tribute to him for servants, 
is of much less account than his profits in leasing these servants to a tenant 
who promptly pays the monthly stipend agreed upon, but who indefinitely 
postpones the payment of the rent due to the trustees of the University. 

I entertain a dreadful suspicion that, when the natural effects of this 
enlightened system are unpleasantly obtruded upon the minds of the latter, 
they are apt to decide that the exaction of increased rents, against those per- 
manent tenants who can be depended on to pay, is an easier device for 
" bringing up the average receipts " than the pursuit of hopelessly delinquent 
" transients." Perhaps I am wrong in this suspicion, as well as in the one on 
which it is based (that the janitor's zeal in enforcing the law against such de- 
linquents is apt to be somewhat modified by the natural human desire "not 
to take the bread out of his own mouth ") ; but, in any case, I must accredit 
the janitor with a great gift, akin to genius, for persuading people of the ap- 
palling dangers which overhang the existence of a tenant who declines to 
employ the regular servants of the University. Even the traditional Phila- 
delphia lawyer never rendered himself a more perfect master of the trick, 
which Demosthenes used to tell us about, as the characteristic one of the 
legal fraternity in his time, of " making the worse appear the better reason." 
If a prospective tenant finally forces out the unwelcome truth that private 
servants are not positively prohiljited from entering these walls, the admission 
is coupled with such significant shruggings of shoulders, such dark hints of 
past misdeeds, and such dreadful suggestions of future peril, as to make a 
man feel that the employment of them here would be a sort of impious defi- 
ance of Providence, — a fool-hardy exposure of his life, his fortune and his 



34 TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 

sacred honor. He is somehow given to understand, without any exact verbal 
formulation or assertion of the idea, that the pervasive gloom of the Univer- 
sity has a subtle power to develop a morbidly thievish — not to say murderous 
— tendency in the minds of such servitors as he might elsewhere rely upon as 
trustworthy and kind ; and that no comfort or safety can, therefore, be ex- 
pected, unless he entrusts his chambers to the care of those competent do- 
mestics who are under the responsible rule of the janitor, and who have been 
trained by this, and by habit and custom and experience, to resist the evils 
which are inherent in so peculiar an atmosphere. There is enough truth on 
the surface of this theory to make it plain that a majority of the tenants act 
wisely in refraining from the introduction of a troop of special servants into 
the Castle, to prey upon themselves and their neighbors. I should regret the 
general adoption of any such system and should deprecate its dangers. The 
present plan ensures as good service as the average man is willing to pay for; 
apd I would not recommend any new-comer to depart therefrom. It will 
certainly be wise for him, at the outset, to " make himself solid with the jan- 
itor," even though he may not share that worthy's conviction that the rob- 
beries, suicides and sudden deaths, sometimes noted in the newspapers as 
happening at the Building, are, in some occult way, ultimately due to the 
non-exclusion from its walls of all valets, body-servants and " private sweeps " 
except those controlled by himself. 

" The mighty concierge " is classed hostis humani generis, by the writers of 
all highly-civilized countries, just as universally as the subscription-book 
agent, or the patent-medicine pedlar ; and the extract given below from the 
testimony of a recent witness (who prints more than a solid column to show 
" why the Parisian press sneer and mock at the candidacy of M. Aube, be- 
cause he is a concierge") would be fairly applicable to the janitors of the 
fashionable apartment-houses in New York.^ It would be quite unjust, how- 

' Do not mistake this for a pleasantry. The concierge rules as autocratically over his king- 
dom as ever did any Russian Czar over his empire bsfore the emancipation of the serfs and the 
invention of Nihilism. A great change has been made from the olden time when Cerberus in- 
habited a hole in the wall, as it were ; mended old boots and pieced ancient garments, while his 
spouse did odd jobs for tenants, and his olive-branches went of errands. While all the rest of 
Paris tends toward democratization, the concierge goes in for " aristocratization." Like all func- 
tionaries, he has a supreme contempt for the public. Ha considers the tenants of the dwelling 
which he " manages " as his subordinates, and you need no more expect civility from him than you 
can from a hotel clerk, or the conductor of an omnibus, or a railway official, or an employ^ at the 
Paris Post Office. Nothing can convince him that he is not the absolute master of every 
lodger. I represent, he says, the landlord, and as such have full authority to let the premises, 
to raise the rent, and to give warning. It is he who elaborates the " rules of the house," and it 
is he who has invented the interdiction of dogs, children, and canary birds, an interdiction 
which is only revocable at his good pleasure. And try to be on good terms with him, for he has 
at his disposal ways and means by which, if your entente be not cordiale, your life will become 
a burden. He will keep the door unopened for you on a rainy day, he will invariably tell your 
friends that you are not at home, he will shake his carpet over your head as you descend the 
staircase, and inflict upon you a thousand petty annoyances against which you have no redress. 



CASTLE SOLITUDE IN THE METROPOLIS. 



35 



ever, to confound with them the janitor of the University Building; and my 
quotation concerning the insolence and tyranny which must be submitted to 
at the hands of the others is chiefly designed to point by contrast his own 
relative politeness — and powerlessness. Though I have hinted on a previous 
page that he may not always rise entirely superior to the distinguishing trait 
of his class, I am bound to add that he seems to be about as unique a phe- 
nomenon among janitors as the Building is among buildings. At all events, 
he is the only one I ever heard of, in any part of the world, in whom the 
usual strictly sordid and mercenary motives are sometimes supplanted by 
sentimental considerations as a basis for conduct. The janitor takes a per- 
sonal pride in the place, not merely because he has for fifteen years person- 
ally helped maintain it " in the front rank of American universities" (with 
his name in the annual catalogue), but because he is vaguely conscious that 
its queerness as a lodging-house reflects a sort of personal distinction upon 
himself. He feels that no other janitor lives in so scholarly and mysterious 
and historic an atmosphere, or comes in such close contact with so many cu- 
rious and remarkable characters. According to the familiar principle, omne 
ignotum pro niagnijico, he learns to reverence those who will not submit to 
him. He points with a kind of hushed and awe-struck pride at those tenants 
who have asserted complete independence of his authority, as if he would 
say, " What other janitor in New York can exhibit such fine specimens of 
crankiness and eccentricity.''" He exalts no one to this pantheon, however, 
until the last conceivable device for holding him down to the level of ordi- 
nary mortals has been tried in vain. Reversing the maxim of Richelieu, his 
policy might perhaps thus be fairly formulated : 

" First, employ all means to crush ! " " Failing these ? " " All methods to conciliate ! " 
The janitor is quite loyal to the undergraduates ; and when each depart- 
ing class of them (after having been for four years summoned to their daily 
recitations by his hourly beatings of the gong ; and after having, for that 
period, tormented him by the tricks and skylarking customary with such 
youth) present him or his wife with a gift of silver-ware or jewelry, as a final 



for to your complaint he will reply that it was " purely an accident independent of his will." 
True, you can retaliate, but I am not sure that you will come off first best. And it is not the 
concierge's ability to cause petty annoyances which constitutes his importance. In his hands he 
holds your credit, your reputation, your fortune, and your honor. Should you undertake any 
business enterprise it is of the concierge that is asked information of your standing ; should 
you have any difficulty with Dame Justice, he is the first authority appealed to for proofs of 
your honorableness ; should you change your tailor, it is your concierge to whom will be put the 
question of your solvency. Everything depends upon your relations with this autocrat, who will 
give a certificate for the Prix Montyon to the blackest of scoundrels, or ruin the standing of an 
honest man, according to the degree of generosity of the individual. Last week, a concierge 
was sentenced to a heavy fine and sixteen days in jail for defamation of character, but few per- 
sons are brave enough to risk the scandal which that suit caused, when the plaintiff's character 
was torn to shreds by the defendant's counsel ; and so people go on and let themselves be bled 
and blackmailed. — Paris correspondence (Sept. 25) of the New York Times, Oct. 12, 1884, p. 5. 



36 TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 

testimonial of good-will, he is always equal to the occasion. I mean that he 
makes it an excuse for "treating" the class to a "reception" whose ex- 
pensiveness must considerably exceed the mere money value of their gift, 
and whose chief feature is a " speech of acceptance," glorifying this latest 
class as superior to all its distinguished predecessors. The janitor rather 
prides himself, indeed, on his oratorical powers, and as these have given him 
a sort of reputation among the local political managers, he not unfrequently 
figures at their autumn " campaign rallies " in the thickly-settled region 
below the Square. I believe this is the only vanity he ever indulges in out- 
side the Building ; and except during these brief seasons of shouting the 
praises of his party (which is the " G. O. P.," opposed to " R. R. R."), he 
may always be found there at evening time, ready to bar its doors against the 
outside world, promptly on the stroke of lo. Portraits of his admired polit- 
ical leaders form a prominent feature in the adornment of the walls of his 
office, but he is not an " offensive partisan " to any such extent as the Parisian 
concierge, who suppresses all political circulars and newspapers which he 
does not wish his tenants to read, and who takes care to keep them fully sup- 
plied with the literature of his own party. Dwellers in the University, on 
the )ther hand, need not allow any of their mail-matter to be submitted to 
the janitor's inspection, for the government postmen are instructed to make 
direct deliveries at the separate chambers of all who express a wish to that 
effect. In this way also it is distinguished from an ordinary apartment-house 
or hotel, for there the postal deliveries are all made at the main office. 

In enumerating the physical shortcomings of the place, which the tenant 
must remedy at his own expense if he wishes to live with much comfort or 
elegance, I have noted by implication the general absence of what are called 
" modern improvements." The absence of any general means for heating or 
" elevating " serves the good purpose, however, of lessening the dangers of 
fire. These are already so considerable that the underwriters attach a high 
rate of insurance to the Building ; and if it were to be " improved " by steam 
pipes and an elevator shaft, its dry wooden floors and staircases would doubt- 
less soon disappear before the flames. Such a disaster would not be likely 
to imperil the life of a tenant in the main structure, — for, in the improbable 
case of both its stairways burning simultaneously at the bottom, with such 
suddenness as to forbid descent, he could still ascend to the roof, and thence 
easily jump down to the roofs of the houses which adjoin eacl\ wing. If, 
however, a fire should start at the foot of the narrow stairway of either of 
these wings, it would be apt to leap almost instantly to the top of the tower 
(induced by the draft which a window kept constantly open there would en- 
sure), and thus shut off all chance of the tenants' escape, unless they were 
able to lower themselves from the outer windows to the street below. In 
other words, these wings are distinctively death-traps, though they were orig- 
inally designed to serve as elegant abodes for the Chancellor and Vice Chan- 
cellor of the University, and were the only parts of it thought fit to live in. 



CASTLE SOLITUDE IN THE METROPOLIS. 



37 



I myself would not sleep in one of them for a single night without a fire- 
escape by my bedside (I keep one, in fact, even in my own much safer cham- 
bers) ; and the general hopelessness of saving any property from destruction, 
in case a fire should once get fairly started in any part of the Castle, may 
well serve as a barrier to prevent a cautious man from risking his treasures 
in it. A lazy one will likewise do well to think twice before he pitches his 
camp where access can only be gained by the ascent of nearly one hundred 
steps ; for the best apartments — like so many other best things in life — are 
those at the top. 

In direct contrast to the practice of other American colleges and univer- 
sities (the latter word has been so generally misused here that it is now 
synonymous with the former in ordinary usage), where the president is ex- 
pected to be the chief motive power in the management, and to bring great 
things to pass by that personal capacity to properly grasp and combine de- 
tails which is called executive ability — the Chancellor of the University is 
excused from all attention to its finances. The present incumbent of the 
office is the pastor of one of the largest congregations in the citv, and his 
immediate predecessor held a similar position. Hence, as the duties directly 
pressing upon every such man must always be beyond his power of fulfil- 
ment, even when he devotes every atom of energy to the work of his church 
alone, the business management of the University is of necessity abdicated 
to others. The trustees, of course, are the legal managers, in whom all ulti- 
mate authority rests; but, as active men of the world, absorbed in their own 
affairs, they like to avoid the irksomeness of attending to petty details, by 
putting as much as possible of responsibility for them upon the shoulders of 
the two senior professors. These in turn, being already overburdened with 
their own proper duties as instructors, are inclined, when such matters cannot 
easily be referred back to the trustees, to leave them to the janitor; who thus 
becomes, in effect, the executive chief of the institution. A chronic want of 
funds for its proper maintenance adds to the interestingness of this curious 
situation, so far as casual tenants are concerned. If one of these objects to a 
leaky roof or broken window, an overcharge of rent or inefficient service, and 
gets tired of talking to the janitor on the subject, perhaps he may nerve him- 
self up to the point of bringing his grievance before one of the professors, 
who may very likely refer him to one of the trustees. The trustee does n't 
want to be bored with the case, and refers him back to another professor, who 
perhaps refers him to the janitor as final authority. A great many days hav- 
ing been wasted in getting the matter as far along as this, a great many more 
go by before anything is done, — even assuming that the tenant's prayer is 
granted. After the average man has been badgered for a while in this way, — 
bandied back and forth between the representatives of a divided and practi- 
cally unapproachable authority, — he of course goes off in despair to seek 
some house where less chaotic conditions prevail; and a new tenant follows 
in his footsteps and in due time undergoes the same exasperations. If the 



38 TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 

new tenant chances to have more philosophy than "the average man," he will 
learn to accept these exasperations as natural concomitants of an exceptional 
situation ; he will quietly pay for such " repairs and improvements " as he 
wants; he will see that if the whole establishment were to be "modernized 
and run on business principles," the peculiar charm of it would disappear. 

This charm attaches to one's individual ability to run his own part 
of the Castle in his own way; and " his part "is practically " the whole," 
for all the rest of the tenants are in effect his vassals and servitors : their 
presence is essential to his own safety and happiness, though they ensure this 
without personal contact. Like the retinue of an old feudal castle, they give 
a human attractiveness to the few chambers which the lord thereof really uses 
as his own. Like the lord thereof, on the other hand, each resident of this 
Castle may always feel reflected upon himself the dignity of its entire owner- 
ship. The fact of such residence makes his life a mystery to every outsider. 
It.conveys no notion of whether he is rich or poor; whether he occupies one 
room or many; whether he lives in entire isolation with the simplicity of a 
savage, or with body-servants at his nod and beck to supply him with all the 
luxuries of an epicurean. There is no general camaraderie among the resi- 
ded' 5; no cohesiveness between the independent atoms; no visits exchanged 
between rooms unless the occupants have known each other elsewhere. It is 
tacitly understood by all that the object of a man's making his home in such 
a place is not to form new acquaintances, but to escape from those already 
formed, — to simplify the machinery of life rather than to complicate it. The 
inspiring fiction of " sole ownership by each " would be sadly impaired 
if the presence and partnership of the others were formally recognized. For 
my own part, I feel the utmost friendliness and good-will towards my co-pro- 
prietors of the Castle ; but I believe that the most acceptable manifestation I 
can make of the sentiment is the negative one of letting them entirely alone 
while within its walls. Were I to be met in a remote part of the world by 
some man who had lived long in the University, his mention of that fact would 
be the best possible passport to my favor. I should feel in advance that he 
would make an interesting companion, because no one without great resources 
in himself could long survive a stay here. The capacity to endure solitude 
with cheerfulness is a crucial test of character, so far as concerns showing that 
it is above the commonplace ; and though a man may lead here a very social 
life of the strictly conventional sort, it is fairly to be presumed that, unless 
he were fully competent to enjoy a lonely one in his own wigwam, he would 
not long submit to the limitations which residence here imposes. Their lack 
of camaraderie ensures a sort of placid feeling in the janitor's mind that the 
tenants will not conspire to accomplish his overthrow, as is often done in 
other places where individual resentments of slight injuries and shortcomings 
are combined, by conversation and interchange of experiences, into a general 
hostile sentiment which has power to remove the object of it. On the other 
hand, there is a fair offset to this in the uncertainty that the janitor neces- 



CASTLE SOLITUDE IN THE METROPOLIS. 



39 



sarily has concerning the possible " influence " of any given tenant with some 
unknown member of the board of trustees. This fact that he is employed by 
a mysterious body of far-extending and undiscoverable connections, instead 
of by a single owner whose friends could be easily identified, is evidently a 
fact that tends to secure good treatment for the tenants. There is always a 
dreadful possibility that each one of these may have a " friend at court," with 
power to work the guillotine remorselessly, if things go wrong ! 

In explaining how "its publicity makes privacy," I have said that the 
habitual passing of many men and women through the corridors renders the 
presence there of any additional man or woman quite unnoticeable ; yet I 
think that a chance visitor, late in the day, after the departure of the students 
and their instructors, would be apt to get the idea that the Building was quite 
ui^nhabited. It is certainly exceptional when the long halls re-echo any 
other tread than my own, on my passage through them. During the seven 
years while the apartments adjoining mine were held by two college acquaint- 
ances, with whom I exchanged many calls, I am sure that I never met them 
on the stairways a dozen times. During an equally long interval while the 
editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper which employed me had apartments 
here which I used to pass two or three times each day, and which I knew 
that he emerged from each day, I never saw him seven times, except inside 
his chambers or the editorial rooms. Reflecting upon these curious reversals 
of probability, one might almost be pardoned for a superstitious belief in the 
existence of some subtle influence which impels each owner of the Castle to 
enter or leave it only at times when he is least likely to be confronted by any 
living reminder of the truth that he is not really the sole proprietor of its 
magnificent solitude. As the chances of casual contact between tenants who 
are acquainted is so slight, it follows that a man may live here for years be- 
fore the faces of non-acquaintances become familiar enough to impress them- 
selves upon him as belonging to residents rather than to the ever-changing 
mass of visitors. Of the latter, as of tenants who stay but a year or two, it 
may be said : " Come they and go, we heed them not, though others hail their 
advent." Names of residents become fixed in mind sooner than faces, for 
they are seen accredited to the Building in newspapers and directories, or 
noticed at the janitor's post-office, or reported through mutual acquaintances. 
Indeed, there formerly existed a lonesome-looking bulletin-board where a 
new-comer sometimes nailed up his " card," as a guide to those who might 
wish to discover the exact number of his room; but no old-resident ever en- 
couraged a device so inharmonious with the spirit of the place, and this mis- 
called " directory" has been wisely obliterated. Unless a visitor " gets his 
bearings," and exact information, at the janitor's office, he may now wander 
about, as in a labyrinth, for an indefinite period, without finding the person 
whom he is in search of, or without being confronted by any obtrusive sign 
whatever. The corridors, I may add, are lighter at night than at any other 
time ; for gas jets burn there continuously until dawn. 



40 TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 

Though a master of the Castle soon grows familiar, in these several 
ways, with certain names as belonging to its retinue, and, ultimately, with cer- 
tain faces, he may be a still longer time in connecting the faces with the 
names. Thus, the existence of the Nestor of the place never happened to 
be revealed to me until, in preparing for print " a directory of Yale men liv- 
ing in New York and its environs " (1879), I had occasion to unearth his 
name. Were it not for the conventional ban which rests upon each resident, 
against impairing the freedom of the place by forming any acquaintanceships 
there, I should be tempted to intrude upon the privacy of this venerable man, 
and beg him to tell me about some of the interesting people who have been 
hidden here with him behind these walls, at one time or another, during the 
half-century (for the tradition is that he began as a tenant, among the very 
first, as soon as his undergraduate days were over). I recall a rumor th«t 
Sam Colt was a resident during the years while he was perfecting the idea 
of Xhe " revolver " which gave him fame and fortune ; and I know that quite 
a long catalogue might be made of men who have attained distinction as 
painters, or lawyers, or politicians, or authors, as a sequel to obscurity here in 
earlier days. That obscurity seems to me to have had in it more likelihood 
of happiness, however, than the celebrity of later date. "As a man thinketh, 
so is he." I know nothing of the thoughts of the man who has lived here 
longest ; but in the fact of his long residence here I account him outwardly 
fortunate. When he went up to New Haven as a Freshman in 1833 he 
joined a class of young fellows from whom have since been elected a President 
of the United States, a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (the officer of great- 
est dignity in America), a United States Senator of New York, a Minister to 
England, a member of two Presidential Cabinets, a Governor, a General, a 
College President, and a long line of professors, clergymen, lawyers, and 
other dignitaries whose names have attained wide repute in their several 
States, if not in the nation at large. Yet this veteran, who has kept secluded 
in Washington Square, during all these years, not even reporting to the class 
secretary the fact of his existence, appears to me to have been happier in his 
" environment " than any of those more distinguished classmates who have 
flaunted themselves in the fierce light that beats about the great dome in 
Washington City. Not a single one of these eminent people possesses my 
personal admiration ; for even the Chief Justice has forbidden me to hold 
him in high honor since that lamentable day when he decided that neither the 
Constitution nor the Supreme Court should any longer serve the citizen as a 
barrier against the confiscating powers of Congress. 

Indeed, I am free to say that, of all the men who have made any public 
stir in the world during the years in which I have been breathing its air, I can 
recall only two who have done anything which I myself should have taken su- 
preme pleasure in doing : pleasure enough, I mean, to compensate for the loss 
of personal freedom implied in the notoriety necessarily accompanying such 
public acts. One was an English playwright ; the other an American naval 



CASTLE SOLITUDE IN THE METROPOLIS. 41 

officer. When the former paused from his routine work in London and lis- 
tened to the mipthful echoes coming back from every city and town and ham- 
let in the world that spoke his mother-tongue, assuring him that the praises 
of " Pinafore " were being simultaneously chanted in a continuous chorus 
which encircled the planet, — when he reflected that no mortal's pen had ever 
before been given power thus to enliven the broad countenance of the whole 
mighty English-speaking race with such a burst of "vast and inextinguishable 
laughter," — I think the sensation must have been worth having. Likewise, 
when the other man laid his right hand on the Obelisk at Alexandria and with 
his left set it up again in New York, — when, having quietly accomplished, by 
means of his own invention, a unique enterprise which all well-informed persons 
had ridiculed as " impossible," he saw the mighty monolith swinging majes- 
tically into position on its pedestal in Central Park, — I think that he, too, on 
that icy midday of midwinter, must have felt entirely "good."^ It is the pri- 
vate, subjective sensation, in each of these cases, which appeals to me as 
exceptionably admirable, — not the public, objective celebrity attaching there- 
to. Indeed, I do not suppose that either man has won any permanent fame, 
since that is usually reserved for those who are appointed to do something 
of universal human interest, — such as successfully superintending the slaughter 
of a vast multitude of the human race, as Lincoln and Grant were appointed 
in our day. Finer far than that, however, seems to me the sensation of hav- 
ing secretly commanded Castle Solitude during all this troublous half-century; 
though whether any resident has really lived here as its commander, or only 
as one of its retinue, can of course be known to his own heart alone. It is 
an intangible essence whose quality depends upon the intellectual bent of the 
individual, — upon his willingness to accept exclusively one half or the other 
of this double-definition : 

Name and fame ? " To fly sublime through the courts, the camps, the schools ! " 
" 'Tis to be the ball of Time, bandied in the hands of fools ! " 

Aside from the artists, for whom this has always been a recognized 
haunt, I think that a majority of the tenants have always been college-bred 
men, and that Yale has always had more graduates here than any other one 
college. This has certainly been the fact during the last decade; and Yale 
has also been continuously represented in the Faculty by eininent and influen- 
tial professors. There existed at New Haven in my time, twenty years ago 
(manifesting itself most tangibly in the region of " the fence," on lazy sum- 
mer evenings), a sort of halo of sympathetic respect for the memory of the 
unknown genius to whom tradition had accredited the apothegm : " Yale 
College would be the ideal place for an education, if the Faculty would only 
dispense with the literary and religious exercises ! " Perhaps the influence of 
that ancient but ever-appetizing jest accounts in part for the preponderance of 

'I feel proud to record that, after erecting the Obelisk (Jan. 22, 1881), Lieutenant Com- 
mander Henry H. Gorringe lived for two or three years in the University Building. He died 
before completing his 45th year (July 6, 1885), in a house that fronts upon Washington Square. 



42 TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 

the college in respect to the number of graduates who have sought to realize 
on Washington Square this delightful dream of an academic Utopia, by enroll- 
ing themselves as honorary members in this real University of Cockagne.i 
To me, at all events, a special zest is given to life here by a consciousness of 
the " literary and religious exercises " which are raging on all sides of me, 
and which others are compelled to take part in while I myself escape such 
thralldom. The dim strains from the chapel organ add to my tranquillity by 
reminding me that no Faculty any longer have power to haul me from bed, 
by that signal, to an unwilling and unbreakfasted participation in the formality 
called "morning prayers." Even the bowlings and fights and rushes and 
miscellaneous horse-play with which the younger classes of collegians some- 
times render the halls uproarious, serve an excellent moral purpose. Like 
the constant demands which a troop of active children make upon their father, 
the turmoil and tomfoolery of these academic children help prevent the resi- 
dent bachelor from becoming entirely self-absorbed. Their antics help keep 
hirn in accord with the fun and freshness of the new generation, by the force 
of the reminiscence which they awaken of his own more frolicsome days. 
" When I was imbibing classic culture," he reflects ; " when I used to 'sock 
with Socrates, rip with Euripides, and mark with Marcus Aurelius,' this same 
sort 'if nonsense pleased me too. As the dear, departed Calverley hath it, 

When within my veins the blood ran, and the curls were on my brow, 

I did, O ye undergraduates, much as ye are doing now ! ' " 

« 

"Anything for a quiet life " is a rendering I like to make of Algernon 
Sidney's famous phrase, " Ense petit placidam sub Ubertate quietem,'" which 
winds its Latin length around the historic Indian on the coat-of-arms of 
Massachusetts ; or, as I sometimes expand the idea, when I gaze upon the 
full-sized figure of that noble savage, frescoed upon the ceiling of my hall- 
way, " He'll fight to the last gasp, if need be, but he will have peace." The 
unique advantage of Castle Solitude seems to me to be this : that peace may 
here be had for the least possible amount of fighting, — that a quiet life may 
here be led without the sacrifice of an " anything " which is of supreme value. 
I do not extol the place as a hermitage, but rather because it allows those 



•Such a tendency has even gained recognition in current fiction, as shown by this extract 
from a Yale professor's tale, contrasting the expectations of certain imaginary classmates, on 
graduation night, with the stories of their actual lives, as reported twenty years later : " Arm- 
strong and you have changed places in one respect, I should think," said I. " He is keeping 
a boarding-house somewhere in Connecticut. And instead of leading a Tulkinghomy exist- 
ence in the New York University Building, as he firmly intended, he has married and pro- 
duced a numerous offspring, I hear." — " Split Zephyr : an Attenuated Yarn .Spun by the Fates," 
by Henry A. Beers, p. 79 (Scribners' Stories by American Authors, Vol. viii., 1SS4, pp. 206). 
The allusion, of course, is to one of the characters who plays so prominent a part in " Bleak 
House," and who is described in the index to Charles Dickens's works, as follows : " Mr. 
Tulkinghorn, an old-fashioned old gentleman, legal adviser of the Dedlocks ; ' an oyster of the 
old school, whom nobody can open.' " 



CASTLE SOLITUDE IN THE METROPOLIS. 



43 



things which cannot elsewhere be had except amid the discomforts of a 
hermitage. As "the happiness of sympathetic human intercourse seems to me 
incomparably greater than any other pleasure," — as the companionship of my 
friends seems by far the finest enjoyment that existence has to offer, — so do I 
value this curious Castle where I can assert my own nature without cutting 
myself off from the presence of the people whom I like, and can lead my own 
life without arousing the resentment of the people whom I regard with indif- 
ference. " The condition in which a man does not pay formal calls, and is not 
invited to state dinners and dances, may be very lamentable and deserving of 
polite contempt, but it need not be absolute solitude, as society people as- 
sume. Such is not the condition of any one in a civilized country who is out 
of a prison cell." In a large city, the social instinct can be gratified by 
chance acquaintanceships, which are continually changing, like those formed 
on a journey. All sorts and patterns of " the human various" can be stud- 
ied off-hand, and without need of introduction. Plenty of people worth talk- 
ing to are always obtainable at every nook and corner. What fashionable 
folks really mean when they stigmatize a city man as "solitary" is not that 
he really leads the lonely life of a hermit, but that he refrains from those 
social relationships of a formal and permanent sort which would subject him 
to the inflexible conventions of "good society." In other words, the solitude 
of the Castle results not from its standing " out of the world " (for it is in the 
very center of a densely-peopled and most interesting world), but only "out 
of the fashion." Its situation seems to combine many of the advantages of 
both the places described in the opening words of the extract which I now 
give from a favorite author, who has already supplied me with a phrase or 
two, and whose, remarks about solitude and independence show so well the 
value and the cost of each that I should like to quote even more extensively : 

Tlie solitude which is really injurious is the severance from all who are capable of under- 
standing us. The most favorable life would have its times of open and equal intercourse with the 
best minds, and also its periods of retreat. My ideal would be a house in London, not far from 
one or two houses which are so full of light and warmth that it is a liberal education to have 
entered them, and a solitary tower on some island of the Hebrides, with no companions but the 
sea-gulls and the thundering surges of the Atlantic. One such island I know well, and it is before 
my mind's eye, clear as a picture, whilst I am writing. It was a dream of my youth to build a 
tower there, with three or four little rooms in it, and walls as strong as a lighthouse. There have 
been more foolish dreams, and there have been less competent teachers than the tempests that 
would have roused me and the calms that would have brought me peace. 

It is a traditional habit of mankind to see only the disadvantages of solitude, without con- 
sidering its compensations ; but there are great compensations, some of the greatest being nega- 
tive. The lonely man is lord of his own hours and of his own purse ; his days are long and 
unbroken ; he escapes from every form of ostentation, and may live quite simply and sincerely 
in great calm breadths of leisure. I knew one who passed his summers in the heart of a vast for- 
est, in a common thatched cottage with furniture of common deal, and for this retreat he quitted 
very gladly a rich fine house in the city. He wore nothing but old clothes, read only a few old 
books, without the least regard to the opinions of the learned, and did not take in a newspaper. 
Though he cherished a few tried friendships and was grateful to those who loved him and could 
enter into his humor, he had acquired a horror of towns and crowds. This was not from 



44 TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 

nervousness, but because he felt imprisoned and impeded in his thinking, which needed the 
depths of the forest, the venerable trees, the communication with primaeval nature, from which 
he drew a mysterious but necessary nourishment for the peculiar activity of his mind. His 
temper was grave and earnest, but unfailingly cheerful and entirely free from any tendency to 
bitterness. On the walls of his habitation he inscribed with a piece of charcoal a quotation 
from De Senancour : " In the world a man lives in his own age ; in solitude, in all the ages." 

He who has lived for some great space of existence apart from the tumult of the world, has 
discovered the vanity of those things for which he has no natural aptitude or gift — their relative 
vanity, I mean, their uselessness to himself, personally ; and at the same time he has learned 
vyhat is truly precious and good for him. Surely this is knowledge of inestimable value to a 
man : surely it is a great thing for any one, in the bewildering confusion of distracting toils and 
pleasures, to have found out the labor that he is most fit for, and the pleasures that satisfy him 
best. Society so encourages us in affectations that it scarcely leaves us a chance of knowing our 
own minds ; but in solitude this knowledge comes of itself, and delivers us from innumerable 
vanities. The man of the world does not consult his own intellectual needs, but considers the 
eyes of his visitors ; the solitary student takes his literature as a lonely traveler takes food when 
he is hungry, without reference to the ordered courses of public hospitality. 

The life of the perfect hermit, and that of those persons who feel themselves nothing in- 
dividually, and have no existence but what they receive from others, are alike imperfect lives. 
The perfect life is like that of a ship of war, which has its own place in the fleet and can share 
in its strength and discipline, but can also go forth alone in the solitude of the infinite sea. We 
ought to belong to society, to have our place in it, and yet to be capable of a complete individual 
existP'xe outside of it. I value society for the abundance of ideas which it brings before us, like 
carriages in a frequented street ; but I value solitude for sincerity and peace, and for the better 
understanding of the thoughts that are truly ours. We need society and we need solitude also, 
as we need summer and winter, day and night, exercise and rest. Society is necessary to give 
us our share and place in the collective life of humanity ; but solitude is necessary for the 
maintenance of the individual life. — " The Intellectual Life," by P. G. Haraerton, pp. 332-333, 
324-J27 (Boston : Roberts Bros., 1873, pp. 455). 

Shelley was a lover of solitude ; which means that he liked full and adequate human inter- 
course so much that the insufficient imitation of it was intolerable to him. It is in this as in 
other pleasures, the better we appreciate the real thing, the less we are disposed to accept the 
spurious copy as a substitute. By far the greater part of what passes for human intercourse is 
not intercourse at all, but only acting, of which the highest object and most considerable merit is 
to conceal the weariness that accompanies its hollow observances. Steady workers do not need 
much company. To be occupied with a task that is difficult and arduous but that we know to be 
within our powers, and to awake early every morning with the delightful feeling that the whole 
day can be given to it without fear of interruption, is the perfection of happiness for one who 
has the gift of throwing himself heartily into his work. This is the best independence, — to have 
something to do and something that can be done, and done most perfectly, in solitude. Many 
of us would rather live in solitude and on small means at Como than on a great income in Man- 
chester. As there is no pleasure in military life for a soldier who fears death, so there is no in- 
dependence in civil existence for the man who has an overpowering dread of solitude. What 
the railway is to physical motion, settled conventions are to the movements of the mind. There 
are men whose whole art of living consists in passing from one conventionalism to another, as a 
traveler changes his train. They take their religion, their politics, their education, their social 
and literary opinions, all as provided by the brains of others. For those who are satisfied with 
easy, conventional ways, the desire for intellectual independence is unintelligible. What is the 
need of it ? Why go, mentally, on a bicycle or in a canoe, by your own toilsome exertions, when 
you may sit so very comfortably in the train, a rug round your lazy legs, and your softly capped 
head in a corner? Independence and originality are so little esteemed in what is called "good 
society " in France, that the adjectives " indt' pendant " and " originaV are constantly used in a 
bad sense. The French ideal of " good form " is to be one of the small crowd of rich and fash- 



CASTLE SOLITUDE IN THE METROPOLIS. 



45 



ionable people, undistinguishable from the others. Bohemianism and Philistinism are the terms 
by which, for want of better, we designate two opposite ways of estimating wealth and culture. 
The Bohemian is the man who with small means desires and contrives to obtain the intellectual 
advantages of wealth, which he considers to be leisure to think and read, travel, and intelligent 
conversation. The Philistine is the man who, whether his means are small or large, devotes 
himself wholly to the attainment of the material advantages of wealth, — a large house, good food 
and wine, clothes, horses and servants. The Bohemian makes the best advantages his first aim, 
being contented with such a small measure of riches as, when ingeniously and skilfully em- 
ployed, may secure them ; and the art and craft of Bohemianism is to get for that small amount 
of money such an amount of leisure, reading, travel and good conversation as may suffice to 
make life interesting. Its asceticism, on the physical side, is not a severe religious asceticism, but 
a disposition, like that of a thorough soldier or traveler, to do without luxury and comfort, and 
take the absencj of them gayly when they are not to be had. Indeed, there may be some con- 
nection between Bohemianism and the life of the red Indian who roams in his woods and contents 
himself with a low standard of physical well being. I sometimes wonder, as regards a certain 
loved and respected Philistine friend of mine, if it ever occurred to him to reflect, in the tedious 
hours of too tranquil age, how much of what is best in the world had been simply missed by him ; 
how he had missed all the variety and interest of travel, the charm of intellectual society, the in- 
fluences of genius, and even the physical excitements of healthy out-door amusements. A true 
Bohemian knows the value of mere sheltei', of food enough to satisfy hunger, of plain clothes 
that will keep him sufficiently warm ; and in the things of the mind he values the liberty to use 
his own faculties as a kind of happiness in itself. His philosophy leads him to take an interest 
in talking with human beings of all sorts and conditions, and in different countries. He does 
not despise the poor, for, whether rich or poor in his own person, he understands simplicity of 
life ; and, if the poor man lives in a small cottage, he too has probably been lodged less spa- 
ciously still, in some small hut or tent. He has lived often, in rough travel, as the poor live 
every day. I maintain that such tastes and experiences are valuable both in prosperity and in 
adversity. — " Human Intercourse," by P. G. Hamerton, pp. 47, 27, 31, 15, 298, 314, with sen- 
tences re-arranged (Boston : Roberts Bros., 1SS4, pp. 430). 

As more than four hundred British subjects have subscribed for this 
book, there may be some truly loyal souls among them who will be proud to 
know that a remote suggestion of royalty, as well as an odor of sanctity, at- 
taches to the scene of its composition. I think it quite improbable that any 
other American book has ever been written in a room that has known the 
presence of the future King of England ; but it is a fact that the apartments 
inhabited by me were constructed in 1875 i" a part of the space that formed 
the chapel of the University at the time when the royal Oxford collegian, 
Albert Edward, was forced to do penance there, a quarter-century ago. The 
following report of the ceremonial was published soon afterwards in the stu- 
dents' Quarterly Magazine, and was reprinted as a curiosity in its issue of 
October, 1878, from which I now quote it. The story has an independent 
interest to home readers, as throwing a strong side-light on the simplicity of 
social manners and customs in that remote era " l^efore the war." Except 
the cemetery at Greenwood, and the prisons on Blackwell's Island, it seems 
that the chapel of the University was the only show-place the city then had 
for the entertainment of distinguished visitors whom it was desirable to im- 
press with an idea of the grandeur and superiority of things metropolitan : 

When the royal visitor arrived in New York he was immediately besieged with numberless 
invitations to visit our public institutions. But few of these, of course, could be honored with a 



46 TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 

second thought, owing to want of time ; but that of Chancellor Ferris was promptly accepted, 
and the honor of his first visit in this city was awardjd to our University. As soon as the 
Prince had signified his acceptance, a plan of reception was adopted, and Professor Wedgwood, 
then at the head of the Law Faculty, appointed to carry it into effect, assisted by the students 
in the collegiate department. The visit was to take place on Friday, October 12, i860, at half- 
past ten A. M., and the Prince was to be received in the large chapel. This chapel, risin<' 
through three stories of the building, had a capacity for comfortably seating twelve hundred per- 
sons, and its rich ornamentation and beautiful windows gave it a very venerable appearance 
quite in contrast to the small chapel in which we now worship every morning. Invitations were 
issued to the wives and daughters of the professors and members of the council, and to the 
mothers, sisters and " lady friends " of the students, and a stage was erected sufficiently large 
to accommodate the Prince and his suite, the officers of the University, and other invited guests. 

On the morning of the appointed day, long before the arrival of the Prince, the chapel was 
densely filled with as brilliant and fascinating an audience as ever assembled within its walls. 
The council, professors, and judges of the courts assembled in the Chancellor's room ; while the 
students, arrayed in their college gowns, and wearing the insignia of their various societies, were 
arranged in double columns from the sidewalk along the various halls through which the Prince 
was to pass in his visit to the several departments of the University. The Prince and his suite 
left_the Fifth Avenue Hotel at half-past ten o'clock and drove rapidly down Fifth Avenue to 
Washington Square, where a fine view of the University Building at the head of the Square was 
presented to them. Alighting at the main entrance on University Place, the Prince was met 
by Prof. Wedgwood, and conducted up the marble stairway to the main hall, where he was 
received by Chancellor Ferris in his official robes. Arm in arm the Chancellor and the English 
stud' -Jt proceeded to the large chapel, followed by Lord Lyons, the Duke of Newcastle, Earl 
St. Germains, General Bruce, the British Consul Archibald, and other members of the Prince's 
suite, with the officers of the University and the judges of the several courts. As the procession 
passed along through the lines of students to the chapel, the Prince was greeted with the ut- 
most respect and deference. As he entered the chapel, the band struck up England's national 
anthem, and the whole audience rose to receive the Prince, and greeted him with the waving of 
handkerchiefs and half-suppressed words of welcome. The procession, led by the venerable 
Chancellor and the young Prince, ascended the platform and passed to the places assigned to 
them. The Prince, with his suite, took a position on one side of the platform, and the council, 
professors and invited guests occupied the other side. A short consultation was then held, at 
the termination of which a signal was given, the music ceased, and the audience was hushed to 
profound silence, while the Chancellor pronounced an address of welcome. The Prince, the 
Duke of Newcastle and Lord Lyons had each expressed a wish to meet on the occasion of their 
visit three of the professors, who were personally known to them, and who had attained a Euro- 
pean celebrity — Prof. Valentine Mott, at that time acknowledged to be the first surgeon in Amer- 
ica ; Prof. John W. Draper, who first applied photography to the taking of portraits from life, and 
in his room in the University Building made the first picture of the human face by the light of the 
sun ; and Prof. Samuel F. B. Morse, who invented the electro-magnetic telegraph, and performed 
his first successful experiment within the walls of N. Y. U. Accordingly they were now spe- 
cially introduced, and Prof. Morse expressed his most hearty thanks for the kind attentions 
shown him by the Duke of Newcastle on his first visit to London with his infant telegraph. 

A neatly engrossed copy of the Chancellor's address, with the resolutions previously 
adopted by the council, was then presented to the Prince, who received the same and made an 
appropriate reply. The Chancellor then presented to the Prince the members of the council, 
the professors of the several Faculties, the judges of the courts, and the ladies. The Prince 
mingled freely with the gentlemen upon the platform for some time, and then, taking the arm of 
the Chancellor, he left the chapel and passed into the law library and lecture-room. Here he 
noticed a large number of valuable books presented to the University by King William IV. and 
Her Majesty Queen Victoria, among which are the entire publications of the Record Commis- 
sioners. Mr. John Taylor Johnston's gift, a complete modem law library, seemed to attract 



CASTLE SOLITUDE IN THE METROPOLIS. 



47 



especial attention. From the law library the Prince was conducted to the council chamber, and 
thence to the marble stairway, where the Chancellor took leave of his royal guest. As the 
Prince and his suite entered their carriages, the students formed in front, and, joined by thou- 
sands of spectators there assembled, gave three times three hearty cheers for the Oxford student. 

Five days later, when the train which carried the Prince from Albany to 
Boston passed through Springfield, and that much-admired youth, standing 
on the rear platform thereof, lifted his little beaver hat, in acknowledgment 
of the acclamations of the populace, I recollect that the heavy hand of a 
hackman swept me and my school-fellows from the places of vantage we had 
gained on the wheels of his vehicle, — so that we saw nothing but the princely 
hat. The next afternoon, however, enthroned safely upon a stool in the win- 
dow of Little & Brown's bookstore, on Washington street, I gazed squarely 
upon the red-coated scion of royalty, as his carriage rolled along in the great 
procession which the Bostonians arranged in his honor. I mention these 
facts for the sake of saying that though I was an "ordinary, human boy 
enough" to take a keen interest in any sort of a show that commanded uni- 
versal popular attention, I recall my personal feeling towards the central fig- 
ure in it as one of pity rather than envy. It seemed to me that such a boy 
could have no fun. I felt that I was more fortunate in the possession of a 
frolicsome bull-dog, and in the liberty to play with him to my heart's content, 
after school hours were over, than this resplendent British boy could ever 
hope to be. Long years afterwards, in '76, a similar sentiment possessed me, 
when I gazed upon the Prince's mother, as she made a royal " progress " 
through London, to signalize the opening of some charitable institution at the 
East End. Looking into the face of this most distinguished woman in the 
world, the uppermost thought in my mind was one of speculative curiosity as 
to what real pleasure there could conceivably be to her in the magnificent 
boredom of all such pomp and pageantry. It seemed to me as if she were 
owned absolutely, as a sort of toy, by the mighty mob that surged in loyal 
waves around her. I wondered, too, if she ever, in changing about from one 
castle or palace to another, felt any longing for that unattainable sort of castle, 
whose impossible solitude and privacy would make it truly her own. 

After all, however, the founders of the University, a half-century ago, 
builded better than they knew ; and their successors of a quarter-century ago 
acted wiser than they knew when they dragged in the Prince to admire it. 
The founders failed in their ostensible object, because the stars in their 
courses fought against it as impracticable ; but their very failure was a part 
and parcel of a unique achievement, which, while I live, shall at least in one 
heart keep their memory green. All unwittingly, they were the instruments 
for accomplishing what no one else has ever done, — what no mortal men could 
conceivably by design and premeditation ever have power to do. If " the no- 
blest study of mankind is man," this temple of learning which they built offers 
unexampled advantages for studying him most nobly. From its towers, who- 
ever possesses " the vision and the faculty divine " may clearly overlook the 



48 TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 

universe. Like as a London cabman looketh with critical and impersonal in- 
terest upon the tendered coin which represents no more than his legal fare, so 
here the philosophic observer may hold at arm's length, as if it were no possi- 
ble concern of his, that mysterious gift called Life. If America is indeed dis- 
tinctively a land of liberty, that place in it where the quality reaches its high- 
est development ought specially to interest the foreign visitor. Thus, though 
the " Chancellor " of twenty-five years ago had no possible conception of it, 
there was a certain poetic appropriateness in forcing the future King of 
England to do his earliest homage in America at what seems to me the most 
sacred shrine in the habitable globe because it is the chosen abode of 
Freedom. My pen may not have had power to paint all its peculiarities with 
a graphic touch ; but I am sure that they deserve such painting. I am sure 
that I rightly use the superlative when I characterize it on my letter-heads 
by adapting these lines from Calverley : 

" 'Nulla non doimnda laum ' is that Building : you could not — 

Placing New York's map before you — light on half so queer a spot." 

I am sure, too, that the seemingly strange act of giving to such a subject 
the longest chapter in a long book on bicycling, will not go unsupported by 
the sympathy of my three thousand subscribers. Understanding as they do 
the siipremely exhilarating sense of independence which the whirling wheel 
imparts to the motion of the body, they will appreciate the appropriateness 
of my describing to them the machinery of a unique habitation whose "simple 
shelter " allows a like liberty to the movement of the mind. They will 
readily recognize, I doubt not, the subtle analogy which exists between the 
Building and the bicycle, and will clearly comprehend why the two must 
needs be coupled in my admiration. Yet, as the great majority of them are 
much younger than myself, they will perhaps be thankful for the reminder 
that, while I admire the two, my book recommends to them only the one ; 
while I account freedom a very fine thing, I do not urge their general pursuit 
of it, to the exclusion of the other fine things which this world contains. My 
own experience is that Renan was right in deprecating the common talk 
which ridicules the generous " illusions of youth," and in declaring rather 
that its only real illusion is a disbelief in the brevity of life. When a sense 
of this finally comes upon a man, I may name to him not only the bicycle for 
balm but the Castle for consolation ; but for his earlier and brighter days my 
preferable pointer must always be this famous old poem of Robert Herrick's : 

" Gather the roses while ye may ! Old Time is still a-flying ; 
And this same flower that smiles to-day, to-morrow will be dying. 
The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun, the higher he 's a-getting, 
The sooner will his course be run, the nearer he 's to setting. 
That age is best which is the first, when youth and blood are warmer ; 
But, being spent, the worse and worst times shall succeed the former. 
So, be not coy, but use your time, and while ye may, go marry, 
Lest, having lost but once your prime, you may forever tarry." 



NEWSPAPER NOTICES 



SUBSCRIBERS' OPINIONS 



■'TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE" 



["A Gazetteer of American Roads in Many States; an Encyclop,«:dia of 
Wheeling Progress in Many Countries" iqoS pages, of 675,000 words ; 200 contributors 
of records ; 3400 subscribers' names and addresses ; photogravure frontispiece but no adver- 
tisements), bound in blue muslin, with beveled edges and gilded top; sent by mail or express, 
boxed and prepaid, on receipt of $2 by the Publisher, Karl Kron, at ilie University 
Building, IVashingion Square, New York Ciiy, Z>.] 



together with 



SPECIMEN PAGES OF ITS MAIN TEXT, 
CONTENTS TABLE, PREFACE AND INDEXES 



also the 



INSTRUCTIONS AND ARGUMENTS OF THE PUBLISHER 

to his 

THREE THOUSAND COPARTNERS 



PUBLISHED BY KARL KRON 

THE UNIVERSITY BUILDING, WASHINGTON S()I;ARE 

NEW YORK 

JULY XXXI— MDCCCLXXXVIII 

D. C. Crocker, Printer 



(G) 



CONTENTS OF THIS PAMPHLET. 



("ublisher's preface 2 

briefs from the reviewers 3 

magnitude 4 

lowness of price 5 

literary style 6 

typography 7 

indexing 8 

for the general reader 9 

EGOTISM 10 

individuality 11 

eccentricity 13 

for horsemen and pedestrians 13 

verdict' of the metropolis 14 

at home and abroad 15 

comprehensiveness , 16 

world-wide scope 17 

Laudation at london 18 

condemnation at coventry i . . .19 

coventry ringing the changes 20 

british fair-play 21 

appreciation at the antipodes 22 

two waytj of* looking at it 23 

officially recommended 24 

east, west and south 25 

fun for pennsylvanians 26 

the story of stevens 27 

recognition by the l. a. w 28 

" cooperative tailoring " and tour. 29 

a five-dollar book for $2 30 

reward wanted : $60,000 31 

sending books " on approval " 32 

A month's READING FOR A QUARTER 33 

PLEDGE OF "my SECOND TEN THOUSAND".34 

AUTOGRAPHS AND PORTRAITS 35 

CHAPTER PREFERENCES 36 

HISTORY OF WHEEL LITERATURE 37 

A GUIDE FOR BEGINNERS 38 

A DIRECTORY FOR CLUBS AND CLUBMEN.39 

NOT SIMPLY A PERSONAL NARRATIVE 40 

"a FREE ADV." OF CYCLING INGENERAL.41 



CUSTOMS-DUTIES AND TRANSPORTATION . 42 

NATURAL HISTORY OF "THE HOG" 43 

TIPS FROM THE CYCLING SCRIBES 44 

COMPLIMENTS FOR " CURL " 45 

FROM A FEMININE POINT OF VIEW 46 

THE RETORT COURTEOUS 47 

THE PERSONAL Et^UATION 48 

SHORT CUTS FROM SUBSCRIBERS 49 

A FIRM HOLD ON THE FUTURE 50 

ST. PETERSBURG'S ANSWER TO OREGON.. 51 

THE HUMORS OF COVENTRY 53 

LONDON ECHOES AT MELBOURNE 53 

UNDER THE SOUTHERN CROSS 54 

SALES IN iJEW ZEALAND ,55 

IN CANADA AND GREAT BRITAIN 56 

REMITTANCES AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 57 

SUGGESTIONS AND CORRECTIONS 58 

NAMES WANTED, AND "OPINIONS." .59 

SUBSCRIBERS AS AGENTS 60 

DELAYS AND CHANGES 61 

COMPLIMENTS FOR " CURL " 62 

"publishers' TRADE-LIST ANNUAL". ..63 

BOOKS AND PAPERS RECOMMENDED 64 

A BL.4.ST FROM "THE THUNDERER" 65 

MINOR CYCLING PRINTS IN AM. MARKET.66 

THE TWO "literary" CHAPTERS 67 

" wheelmen's GAZ." AND "WHEELING ".68 

sending specimen papers 69 

for public libraries 70 

the first fifty 71 

" edition de luxe " 72 

"four years at yale" 73 

the costs of book-making 74 

the chances of profit 75 

the policy of honesty 70 

the theory of reciprocation 77 

the significance of " talking 

MONEY " 78 

A TEST OP ENDURANCE 79 

A STRAIGHT COURSE TO THE END 80 



The remainder of the pamphlet consists of Advertisement of "Curl", 8 pp. ; 
Advertisement of "Castle Solitude", 8 pp.; and reprints from 48 pp. of "Ten 
Thousand Miles on a Bicycle", as follows : Table of Contents, pp. ix to xx ; Pre- 
face, pp. iii, iv, vii, viii ; Titles of the 41 Chapters ; On the Wheel, p. 9 ; White 
Flannel and Nickel Plate, p. 17 ; My 2.34 Rides on " No. 234," p. 63 ; Kentucky and 
Its Mammoth Cave, p. 225; In the Down-East Fogs, p. 275; Straightaway for Forty 
Days, p. 305; Long-Dlstance Routes and Riders, p. 473; Statistics from the Vet- 
erans, p. 502; British and Colonial Records, p. 531; The Three Thousand Sub- 
scribers (alphabetical), p. 734; Directory of Wheelmen (g-eographical), p. 765; 
Index of Places, p. xxxv; Index of Persons, pp. Ixv, Ixxi, Ixxxiii; Verses of Greet- 
ing, p. cviii; General Index, pp. xxi to xxxiv; Information for Booksellers: 
Notice to the Postmaster. Whole number of pasres in the pamphlet (mcluding- 
cover and the Stevens lithograph facing- p. 65) is 1.50; and the first 96 of these are 
reproduced as the central feature in the " Publishers' Trade-List Annual " for 1888. 

T4 



INFORM A TION FOR BOOKSELLERS. 

" My best discount " is occasionally enquired after by some representa- 
tive of the book-trade who has heard of " Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle," 
but is not familiar with its peculiar mode of publication. This peculiarity 
ensures directly to each buyer the full discount of $3 (by rating at $2 what 
would ordinarily cost him $5 if sold through the bookstores), and therefore 
forbids any further commission to middlemen. Even with selling-agents 
thus serving me without pay, in all parts of the world, the first edition is prac- 
tically a gift of mine to the public ; for I have shown elsewhere in this pam- 
phlet that no profit can really bcgi)i to accrue to me until after the first 6000 
copies shall have been sold. Hence, I will deliver the book to no man for 
any lower rate than the $2 plainly stamped upon its cover and title-page, — 
whether he be " in the trade " or outside it. Nevertheless, if a bookseller 
will personally apply at one of my agencies where copies are already depos- 
ited, he shall be allowed a deduction of 25 cents on each volume paid for 
there, — merely to cover the cost of delivering it to his customer. I shall also 
be glad to grant " the usual trade discount " to any dealer who wishes to at- 
tempt the sale of the following pamphlets reprinted from the book, on heavy 
paper, tinted and calendered, and bound in olive-green covers. The price 
named upon the cover and title-page is 25 cents, but I will sell them for 15 
cents each to any bookseller who will pay his own expressage : 

CURL, THE BEST OF BULL-DOGS: a Study in Animal Life. 
Twenty-eight pages of 14,000 words, with photogravure frontispiece ; appen- 
di.K of 132 pages giving specimens of i\\t text and newspaper notices of "Ten 
Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." Sent postpaid to any country in the world, on 
receipt of 25 cents' worth of the lowest denomination of postage-stamps locally 
current. Karl Kron, Piiblis/ier, at the University Building, N. Y. City. 

CASTLE SOLITUDE IN THE METROPOLIS: a Study in Social 
Science. Fifty-six pages of 34,000 words, with small picture of the Castle; 
appendix of 132 pages, the same as the above. Sent to any address for 25 c. 

I repeat below, from the page which contains the full prospectus of 
" My Second Ten Thousand," the application-form, which will ensure to a 
bookseller — the same as to any one else — the chance of buying the volume 
" at the usual 33 per cent, off," in case it is ever published. The act of sign- 
ing does not bind a person to buy the book at any price ; it merely binds the 
Publisher to give a month's option of buying it at two-thirds the retail rate : 

/ hereby authorise Karl Kron to print my name in the list of supporters 
of his proposed second book (to be called " My Second Ten Thousand^'' containing 
not less than 300 pages of large type, with at least 250 tvords to the page, and retail- 
ing at $1.50) ; and I agree that, if at any future time I receive notice f-om him 
that such a book has been published, I will reply within a month, and either en- 
close a dollar to pay for a copy, or else give notice that I resign the privilege (which 
K. A', ensures to me in return for the present pledge) of securing one from him at 
two-thirds the regular rate. 

(Name, address, date and occupation to be plainly written below. Prepay by a 2-cent stamp.] 

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(H) 



NEWSPAPER NOTICES 



SUBSCRIBERS' OPINIONS 



"TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE" 

of records; 3400 subscribers' names and addresses ; photogravure frondspiec^ but o adver 
t sements) bound in blue mushn, with beveled edges and elided top; se u 'by mai" or exnriss 
boxed and prepaid, on receipt of S2 bv th<> Publisher Karf V^nv L //, °/r -^ I ' 
B^^^Vdms-, IVashingtct Square, New York cSy', dT' University 



TOGETHER WITH 



SPECIMEN PAGES OF ITS MAIN TEXT, 
CONTENTS TABLE, PREFACE AND INDEXES 

ALSO THE 

INSTRUCTIONS AND ARGUMENTS OF THE PUBLISHER 

TO HIS 

THREE THOUSAND COPARTNERS 



Each recipieiit of this pamphlet will confer a favor by handing it to any 
;.cquainta7tce who is interested in cycling; also by supplying the Publisher zvith 
addresses of possible buyers of the book, to whom the pamphlet can be mailed. 

[First edition, 5000 copies; 25 Jan., 18S8] 



PUBLISHER'S PRKKACK. 

In compiling this collection of "notices and opinions," the endeavor has 
been made to render them readable by careful selection and arrangement. 
Every page is complete in itself and is headed by a different title, and almost 
every pac^e contains a variety of quotations appropriate to its headmg. Many 
c,f these are in sharp conflict, or in amusing contrast xvith each other ; for I 
have reprinted without reserve everything evil which I have been able to 
fmd afloat in the press concerning the book and its author (except a few mis- 
statements of physical facts), in the belief that such censures serve the pur- 
nose of arousing curiosity about expressions of the opposite sort As I have 
failed to hear from a dozen or more journals to which I ordered that copies 
of the book should be sent for review, it is possible that some of them may 
have indulged in appetizing sarcasms, ridicule and abuse not found m the 
present pamphlet. I only assert that I have included in it every bit o such 
stuff within reach.-aiming in strictly scientific spirit to show my chosen 
public .// the evidence,-and that I have included enough to make the pam- 
phlet rather interesting on its own account. People who like to " watch the 
workings of the human mind " ought certainly to be amused by these speci- 
mens which so well illustrate the tricks and manners of " reviewers. 

My request that these reviewers should treat of the book as a unique 
business enterprise, rather than as a literary curiosity," has been very generally 
disregarded ; and a chief factor in the problem of persuading a large enough 
contingent of my 3400 subscribers to really serve as " copartners (in forcing 
or it a successful'sale of 30,000 copies) is the difficulty of making them dis- 
tinguish clearly between the " personal " and the " business' phases of he 
case " Mv labor and risk as ' publisher ' are what I seek .pay f or,-not my 
writings as ' author.' " So runs the opening phrase in my argument on page 
7:c. and I wish it were possible for my supporters to look upon me as a 
"nu'blisher"simply,-just as they might if some one else had prepared the 
manner P (confining and those of all other tourists 

whom he could persuade to contribute any), and had worked upon my cycling 
enthusiasm enough to induce me to invest the large sum of $i.,ooo m giving 

this manuscript to the public. 

There is plenty of proof, scattered through the 116 pages of this pam- 
phlet, that no regard for " the author's feelings " has caused me to suppress 
Iny vil words spoken against him. which could serve to awaken curiosity in 
l^work. The distribution of 5000 copies of so elaborate an advertisement 
"therefore inspired by "business " rather than by vanity; and those reap - 
ents who may help secure as wide a reading as possible or each pamphlet, 
as a means of helping such business to success, will |-^y;^^;S^^3^,^,^ 
Washington Square, N. Y., Feb. 29, 1888. 



BR/EFS FROM THE REVIEWERS. 

Taking all things into consideration, strong and weak points alike, we 
believe that the author has most faithfully kept his promise and that " Ten 
Thousand Miles on a Bicycle " will always hoid the undisputed place of the 
first great work on the subject of cycling, bearing to all wheelmen that rela- 
tion that Isaac Walton's Complete Angler bears to fishermen, the world over. 
— IVhednicn'' s Record, Indianapolis. 

An alia podrida of endless variety. — Scientific Atiierican. As comprehen- 
sive as a file of newspapers. — Baltimore American. Most useful to those 
wishing such information. — The Times, N. V. Invaluable to one contemplat- 
ing a tour. — T/ie Bicycle Sonth. A valuable encyclopaedia, well worth the price 
asked for it. — L. A. W. Bulletin. For the public it seeks it will be a handy 
volume. — The Nation, N. Y. Invaluable to all who follow in his footsteps, or 
wheel-tracks. — Lippincott'' s Magazine. Those who are just beginning the 
sport will find it a work of absorbing interest. — N'ew Englander. Although 
a veritable cycling encyclopaedia, it is really of especial value to all horse- 
men who drive for pleasure. — Spirit of the Times, N. Y. This manual will 
prove indispensable to the wheelman. It is most valuable to the bicycler 
who has time for riding long distances. — Boston Advertiser. 

The chief characteristic is its comprehensiveness. — Canadian IVheelman. 
Urfique in literature and unsurpassed in its line. — McGregor News, la. The 
largest and most complete work on cycling ever published. — The Cyclist, 
Coz'cntry, Eng. The most thorough book that any recreative sport has ever 
had published. — Boonvillc Advertiser, Mo. Not alone unique, but prodigious; 
this monument of cycling must stand. — Australian Cycling Nexus. A really 
wonderful work, the first classic of cycling literature. — Wheeling, London. 
The work will stand as " the Domesday Book of Cycling." — Sewing Machine 
&" Cycle News, London. As an insight into American cycling, the volume is 
very valuable. — Irish Cyclist &' Athlete, Dublin. Statistical and historical, 
amusing and pathetic, it has charms for every reader. — Saturday Night, Bir- 
i?iingham, Eng. Whatever has been said in way of praise of this book, by 
the wheel literature -of the world, is well merited. — Nexv Zealand" Referee. 

A masterpiece of egotism. — Pall Mall Gazette, London. The most ridic- 
ulous book of the season. — Philadelphia Press. His individuality has asserted 
itself, and some of his literary excursions are exquisite. — Hartford Courant. 
A monument only to be compared with Webster's Dictionary or the Great 
Pyramid. — The Bookmart, Pittsburg. One of the most worthless volumes 
ever written ; it is the work of an idiot, not of a sane man. — Boston Herald. 
Cyclists of all nations may get from it many useful " wrinkles." To Ameri- 
cans, especially, it will be invaluable and almost indispensable. The author 
is a genial and kindly philosopher, who makes no false or undue pretensions 
of any kind. — The Saturday Review, London. An autobiography of a sin- 
gularly self-sufficient mediocrity; a faddist of the worst order; an egotistical 
nonentity ; a gigantic sham ; the self-confessed committer of every literary 
crime. — Bicycling News, London organ of" the Coventry ring"^ 

D3 



MAGNITUDE. 

An enormous volume. — LouisnilU Commercial. Excessively long. — The 
Congregatioitalist, Boston. A compact cyclopaedia of the sport. — Boston 
Advertiser. — A tremendous book for its subject. — Chicago Times. An encyclo- 
paedic guide for bicycle-riders. — San Francisco Argonaut. Its ponderosity 
shows the extent of the sport. — St. Louis Post-Dispatch. An enormous vol- 
ume, with an enormous amount of information. — The Evening Te/egratn, JV. Y. 
It derives its virtue from its correctness and its mass. — The Times, IV. Y. 
This work of years has at last assumed enormous dimensions of closely 
printed matter. — Irish Cyclist cSr' Athlete, Dublin. 

The small and exceedingly clear type makes it contain the substance of 
three or four volumes of respectable size. The amount of matter cannot be 
estimated by the number of pages. — Scientific American, N. Y. 

The mass of details has been arranged with skill, backed by enthusiasm 
and tireless patience. — The Critic, A'. Y. 

For quantity of matter, detail and reference, it is not only unique but 
prodigious. — Australian Cycling jVetus, Alelbozirnc. 

_ It is a monument of patience and energy only to be compared with Web- 
ster's Dictionary, or the Great Pyramid. — The Bookmart, Pittsburg, Pa. 

A veritable cycling encyclopsedia, including more, and more diverse, in- 
formation than was ever before crowded into one book. — Spirit of the Times. 

The labor which entered into its composition has been something enor- 
mous, and we can only hope that the author will be amply rewarded for it. — 
New Englander. 

I am simply amazed at the extent and interest of the book, — a monument 
of the ability and indefatigable industry of its author. — " The Tyre" in Satur- 
day A'ight, Binningham, Eng. 

We have again been dipping into Karl Kron's great book, though the 
immense size of the monster has as yet prevented us from grappling with the 
whole. — Irish Cyclist dr' Athlete, Dubli7i. 

If carried with one on a bicycle, it would be impossible to take anything 
else ; and we, for our part, prefer a change of clothes to a gazetteer, diction- 
ary, cyclopaedia and thesaurus. — Pall Mall Gazette, London. 

Its ponderosity is its chief defect, but we trust that that drawback will 
not interfere with the industrious editor meeting with a return sufficient to 
fully reward him for his many years of laborious work. — Canadian Wheelman. 

Growing as time went on, it has assumed the proportions of over 800 
pages of closely printed matter, and, although somewhat tedious in places, 
will evidently be the largest and most complete work on cycling ever pub- 
lished. — The Cyclist, Cca'entry, Eng. 

The mere form of advertisement adopted is evidence, if evidence were 
needed, of the smallness of mind which has produced this big-little book, — 
this monument of egotism, — which resembles a Brobdingnagian infant's 
primer, in quantity stupendous, in quality petty and infantile. — Bicycling 
A^e^vs, London organ of "the Coz'entry )'tng," printers to the C. T. C. 

(Z) 



I 



LO IV NESS OF PRICE. 

The best two dollars' worth ever offered to cyclists. — Spirit of the Times. 

Well worth the money asked for it, and should be owned by every wheel- 
man. — Bicycling World, Boston. 

Wonderfully cheap at $2. There is not a chapter in the book which is 
not worth, alone, more than the price of the volume. — Star Advocate. 

So cheap that we are afraid the publisher will die as poor as the poor 
dog to whose name it was dedicated. — L. A. W. Pointer, Oshkosh, Wis. 

The book is a good book, well worth the money. There is no English- 
man who has had it and not pronounced it really good value. — Wheeling. 

Vastly beyond my expectations. It is the first time I ever got a $5 book 
for $1, and I'm glad of a chance to pledge for your ne.xt volume. — W. R., 
Holyoke, Mass. 

The more one looks into it, the more does its value increase, and I would 
not part with my copy for considerable many times its price. — //. P. Merrill, 
Los Angeles, Cal. {formerly cycling editor of Springfield Union). 

A valuable book, well worth the price asked for it. It is cheap at $2. 
We should want it in our library, and should have it there, if we had to pay 
$5 for it. — L. A. W. Bulletin, official organ League of American Wheelmen. 

I would willingly pay more, too, for maps and illustrations, though I fully 
appreciate the fact that more value than the price of the book is already 
given. I consider the great mass of material atones for delay in publication. 
— -J. f. Bliss, San Francisco. 

Most assuredly, I am well paid for waiting so long for your book. It was 
a stupendous undertaking, and has been carried through in a manner which 
convinces me my money has brought a great return. The book is well worth 
$3.50 or $4, and should be in the possession of every wheelman in America. — 
W. V. Gilman, Mishua, JV. H., ex-Treasurer L. A. W. 

Having been in the publishing business for a term of fifteen years, more 
or less, the peculiarity of your advertisements attracted me as a subscriber, 
though I take little or no interest in cycling. My opinion is that you would 
sell the book more rapidly if you had put its price up to $3.50 or even $5. 
People simply will not believe that any $2 book can contain such a vast bulk 
and variety of information.—^. W.f., Washington, D. C. 

The volume is in many respects a remarkable one, and certainly a very 
valuable one to every American bicycler. Simply as a book of reference, it is 
worth more than the price asked. The minute account of your travels, and 
the number of personal experiences of other cyclers, omitting no details, serve 
to render it, I think, more useful and more readable. It is not, in my opinion, 
too long. In fact, I would like to see it longer, and even more exhaustive in 
describing the roads of the United States. Altogether, it is a very interest- 
ing book, and one that no cycler should be without, showing, as it does, what 
■may be done by a man of ordinary physical ability, but of extraordinary and 
indomitable pluck and energy. — L. D. Aylett, Birmingham, Ala. {treasurer of 
the Georgia Pacific Railroad Co9npany). 



INDEXING, 

The book is a regular dictionary of roads, well-indexed. — N. O. Picayune. 

The many indexes give it a solid character as a book of reference. — Wor- 
cester Spy. 

The indexes are a feature of the work, and the most complete and handy 
we ever saw with any published book. — Cape Ann Breeze. 

All this mass of information has been placed within easy reach of the 
reader by an elaborate system of indexing. — Lippincott's Magazine. 

The indexing has been most carefully done, and any subject, place, per- 
son or book mentioned may be instantly turned up. — The Epoch, N. Y. 

The indexes, which are a complex system and need " a day off " to be 
mastered, endeavor to set the reader on the right road. — St. Louis Post- 
Dispatch. 

Aside from its defects, the book is valuable, as the work of compilation 
and indexing appears to have been done conscientiously. — San Francisco 
Chronicle. 

It has, what too few books are furnished with, an elaborate system of 
indexing, and it will undoubtedly be a vade meciim to all bicyclers. — N'ew 
Haven Palladium. 

It is ^11 so cleverly indexed that the reader in two minutes can find out all 
about any particular place or thing which has a bicycling interest. — Sa7t 
Francisco Argonaut. 

The elaborateness of its indexing shows that it is designed less for reading 
than for reference. The information wanted can be found at once if contained 
in the book at all. — World Travel Gazette, N. Y. 

So wide is the scope of the .work, we doubt if it be possible for the wheel- 
man to select any cycling subject that he will not find properly indexed, with 
several references. — Wheelmen'' s Record, Indianapolis. 

The admirable indexing of the work renders its information readily 
accessible, — an important consideration, inasmuch as it is as a book of refer- 
ence that this volume will find its principal use. — Boston Advertiser. 

As the book is intended as an encyclopaedia of reference for wheelmen, 
the contents are indexed with especial care. This redeeming feature enables 
the reader to extract the kernel, which is excellent in its line, and likewise 
ensures to the author's mental and physical efforts, in connection with the 
bicycle, a wide-spread appreciation among certain classes. — Alta California. 

I am perfectly astonished at the enormous amount of material included 
within its covers ; but more, at the skill, care and ingenuity of the indexing, 
which has rendered all this material practically available for reference pur- 
poses. Such cursory examination as I have found time to give the book has 
caused me a great deal of pleasure as well as information. If the accuracy 
and faithfulness shown in describing sections of the country with which I am 
familiar, are continued throughout the volume, the work will be indispensable 
to the touring wheelman, — even to one to whom the literary excellence is a 
minor consideration. — L. W. Seely, Washington, D. C. (lawyer and tourist). 

F2 



FOR THE GENERAL READER. 

The side remarks and anecdotes will bear reading well for their literary 
value. — Worcester Spy. 

It also holds the interest of the non-cycler who chances to come in con- 
tact with it. — Louisville Commercial. 

Written in a very bright and clever style, it is a notable book, outside of 
its relations to the wheel. — Buffalo Courier. 

There is a vast deal of this book that is of interest to the general reader 
as much as to the bicycler. — Detroit Free Press. 

Will also greatly interest the general reader, touching, as it does, the 
" Undiscovered Country " in Literature. — Bangor Commercial , Me. 

Despite these special features, the book contains a large amount of mat- 
ter in which the general reader could take more or less interest. — Cleveland 
Leader. 

Some chapters are very good reading for anybody, whether wheelman or 
not, although the author expresses a lofty scorn of literary excellence. — 
Buffalo Expi-ess. 

There are several readable chapters, and the book has literary merit of 
rare quality, in spots. His individuality has asserted itself, and some of his 
literary excursions are exquisite. — Hai'tford Courant. 

It gives a good deal of information concerning American roads; is 
crammed with statistics ; and people who make long tours with horses will 
find it an excellent guide. — Turf, Field ^r' Farm, N. Y. 

The chapter-headings are sufficiently suggestive to awaken curiosity, and 
(aside from those devoted to record and detail) I venture to say there is not 
one but will interest even the general reader. — St. Louis Spectator. 

As an encyclopaedia of cycling, it deserves front rank among the books 
of the decade, while there is enough of general interest in it to attract the 
attention of a person who has no connection with the wheel. — The Bicycle 
South, New Orleans. 

Even that composite person " the general reader," and the man who has 
never mounted, and never means to mount, the iron horse, may find in these 
pages information well worth possessing on many matters besides "shop." — 
The Saturday Review, London. 

To many readers who might care little for the rest of the book, these two 
irrelevant chapters ("Curl" and "Castle Solitude "), together with the first 
(" On the Wheel "), — the only ones which have much literary merit, — would 
be worth the price of all. — Boston Advertiser. 

I have not read it continuously, but have browsed over here and there 
with much interest and delight. There 's an enduring literary quality and a 
certain unique flavor in parts of the book for many who will discover it, and 
I think the after-sales will stretch through the years. A good-sized volume 
could be condensed and separated from the encyclopaedic parts, sometime, 
that should be ranked with Erasmus's " Praise of Folly " and Walton's 
" Complete Angler." — Charles E. Pratt, author of " The American Bicycler." 

(C2) 



E CCENTRICIT V. 

An eccentric genius who gives the world his experiences on a wheel. — 
Cleveland Leader. 

Those who enjoy thoroughly characteristic books will appreciate this 
one. — Scientific American, N. Y. 

A unique book, which loses nothing of interest because it reflects the 
eccentricities of its author. — Commercial Advertiser, N. Y. 

It is something of a literary curiosity, for much of the author's peculiar 
personality crops up in several places. — The Bicycle South, A^erv Orleans. 

The author is an eccentric genius, and every one of these 800 pages 
shows traces of his peculiar methods and idt2LS.—Spii-it of the Times, N. Y. 

The author is eccentricity personified, and his book is full of eccentric 
notions and ideas, but these raise it above dullness, and make it all the more 
interesting. — Z. A. IV. Bulletin. 

The author is eccentric in more ways than one, and is not only his own 
publisher, but refuses to allow a publisher to handle his work in the ordinary 
way, of business. — Land d^ Water, London. 

Only a wheelman can understand how such a book came to be written ; but 
it serves a useful purpose, and its eccentric author will harm no one but himself 
should he publish the second volume, which he promises. — The Times, JV. Y. 

lie thinks a great deal of himself and his performance, though not from 
the literary point of view, which he rather contemns, but from the financial 
point of view, which he has constantly before him, and against which nothing 
need be said. — The Mail &' Express, N. Y. 

The manner in which the author states that he does not intend to pay 
the slightest commission to agents, and endeavors to make his readers hon- 
orary canvassers for the sale of the precious volume, is very refreshing. It 
is about the coolest piece of impudence I have ever read. For cuteness in 
advertising the Yankees can give us fits. — Athletic News, London. 

There is also an immense amoui\t of discursive matter which any good 
editor would have cut out, and thus brought the volume within reasonable 
bounds. As it is, we have the author's opinions on a great variety of topics 
that have nothing to do with bicycling, and his opinions, as a rule, are neither 
profound nor pungent. There is also much clumsy humor of the German 
type. — San Francisco Chronicle. 

All of this and more has he borne without flinching or halting in his 
determination to present to the world a book, not the product of a callow 
brain, rushed through printers' and binders' hands, just to oblige us scribblers 
of the press, but a work of such a kind as the world has never seen, and will 
not soon, if ever, again see duplicated, being, as it is, the result of years of 
constant thought and labor of a trained and scholarly mind, and written by a 
pen that is no prentice one. Long after the writer of these notes shall have 
passed away and been forgotten, the name and book of Karl Kron will remain 
as a work and author the like of which in their peculiar way do not elsewhere 
exist.—" The Owl," in L. A. IV. Bulletin, Boston. 

(Y) 



FOR HORSEMEN AND PEDESTRIANS. 

A veritable cycling encyclopsedia, including more, and more diverse, in- 
formation than was ever before crowded into one book. The author is an 
eccentric genius, and every one of these 800 pages shows traces of his pecul- 
iar methods and ideas. It is the best two dollars' worth ever offered to 
cyclists, and no wheelman can afford to be without a copy. Not the least 
curious feature of this remarkable book is the fact that, although named 
" 10,000 Miles on a Bicycle,'i and apparently appealing only to bicyclists, t'i is 
really of especial value to all horsemen who drive for pleasure. Its authentic 
and detailed information concerning the roads of the United States and 
Canada, is such as cannot be found elsewhere, and renders it a necessity for 
all who make pleasure tours on wheels or horseback. — Spirit of the Times. 

It gives a good deal of information concerning American roads; is 
crammed with statistics; and people who make long tours with horses will 
find it an excellent guide. — Tiuf, Field &■ Farm, JV. Y. 

The author distinctly states that 'the book is for reference, and he does 
not expect the general public to read it. To the traveler, however (unless he 
go by train), the work would be valuable, as it contains records of distances 
and descriptions of roads and towns, together with much more like informa- 
tion which would be highly prized by any one intending to take an extended 
journey by wheel or carriage. The countries covered include Australia, 
America, Austria, France, Germany, India and many other parts of the 
world. — Netu England Homestead, Springfield, Mass. 

The work is infinitely more than a personal narrative. It has over 200 
contributors from all parts of the globe, and is a compendium of modern 
travel and general information. — McGregor News, la. 

A work that no active bicyclists can afford to be without, as it contains 
an astonishing amount of information concerning roads, etc., applicable to 
every section of the country. — Sporting Life, Philadelphia. 

A curious hodge-podge of a volume, but one containing in great profu- . 
sion the sort of information wheelmen would naturally seek. — Arm_y &= jVavy 
Journal, N. V. 

It presents minute descriptions of about 6000 miles of American high- 
ways, explored by the author in 24 States and Provinces. The mass of in- 
formation is carefully indexed for ready reference. — Booh Chat, N. Y. 

The author is a cycler who has journeyed far and wide in his own coun- 
try on the nickel-plated steed, and he has been careful to gather information 
for other riders. With this end in view his book is elaborately indexed.— 
Philadelphia Times. 

Karl Kron is evidently a man who has not only traveled much but has 
also had his eyes open and his hands out of his pockets ; and his book will 
tend to beget a similar condition in the young men who run across it. While 
he insists upon calling it a unique business enterprise, we think it is not diffi- 
cult to detect in it traces of literary merit. It will surely be a valuable book 
to wheelmen and other travelers. — University Chronicle, Mich. 

D2 



VERDICT OF THE METROPOLIS. 

Karl Kron's journeys were made in familiar localities, and over routes 
most traveled by wheelmen. Any one of them intending similar trips would 
certainly profit by his experiences and descriptions of the routes and hotels, 
of the surface of the roads, and of their hills, etc. All such matters are set 
forth in detail most useful to those wishing such information, but, we grieve 
to say, most uninteresting to the general reader. Karl Kron gives a chapter 
to the cryptic building on Washington Square wherein was laid the scene of 
" Cecil Dreeme " ; and no one can grudge the score of pages devoted to the 
humors and virtues of a companion of his boyhood, to wit, a bull-dog. This 
is the only portion of the book done with any literary skill. The rest is in 
excellent guide-book style, and derives its virtue from its correctness and its 
mass. Only a wheelman, and perhaps not even all that fraternity, can under- 
stand how such a book came to be written. But, being in existence, it serves 
a useful purpose, and its eccentric author will harm no one but himself should 
he publish the second volume, which he promises. — The Times, N. Y. 

As regards its literary form, it is a rattling affair, the animal spirits of 
the writer bubbling well into the pages, with the pronoun of the first person 
thrust unsparingly forward. Two chapters of the book — one devoted to a bi- 
ography of Curl, " My Bull Dorg, the very best dog whose presence ever 
blessed this planet" (to whose memory the book is dedicated), the other 
called "Castle Solitude in the Metropolis," and giving an account of life in the 
New York University Building — seem quite irrelevant to the volume's purpose 
and to be introduced without sufficient reason. For the most part, however, 
the book is packed with information of interest to wheelmen, collected, it is 
plain, with great labor and, so far as we can judge, accurate. Of especial inter- 
est is a biography of Thomas Stevens, beginning page 473, which all vi'ho read 
"Around the World on a Bicycle " will be glad to see. The chapters through- 
out are most frank and unconventional, and many a graphic passage occurs 
to relieve statistical detail. For the public it seeks it will be a handy vol- 
ume, the shortcomings of which one feels disposed to overlook, since the com- 
piler has been so hard working and good-natured. — The Evening Post, N. Y. 

The author hardly traveled over more space in the making of his memo- 
rable journeys than his pen has traveled in the making of their records. If 
Karl Kron is an indefatigable traveler he is still more an indefatigable writer. 
He is a walking, or, one might rather say, a wheeling encyclopaedia, and he 
imparts his information and the results of his observations on any and all 
subjects and places, with a prodigal impartiality that is superb. Mr. Kron, 
however, designs his book to serve for one of reference rather than as one for 
simple amusement. He is a careful observer and note taker, and to a man 
who desired to journey over the ground Mr. Kron had covered, this book 
would prove altogether indispensable. — The Star, N. Y. 

The author has conveyed so much of his very marked and interesting 
personality into every page, — his reading and notes and views of men and 
things crop out so profusely, — the interest never flags. — Scientific American. 



AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

He has collected an immense body of information of interest to wheel- 
men. An enthusiast on the subject of bicycling, he has produced a work 
which ought to become a sort of vade mecum to all lovers of that exhilarating 
sport. It is, in reality, a gazetteer, a dictionary, a directory, a cyclopedia, 
and a statistical guide all in one. Besides what the author has to say about 
bicycling proper and its varied statistics, he finds space to speak about the 
politics of the wheel, the literature of the wheel, and the hotel question as it 
affects wheelmen. — The Sun, N. Y. 

Doubtless the manual will be greatly sought after, not only by American 
wheelmen but by all " foreigners " bent on a tour in the States. It is certainly 
one of the biggest things on wheels ever attempted. — Sporting Life, London. 

It conies first, last, and all the time under the class of writings which 
Lamb designated as " books which are not books," and which include direct- 
ories, dictionaries, reports of societies, and arid but bulky information of all 
sorts in regard to the mechanical arts and inventions. To criticise such pub- 
lications from a literary point of view would be absurd. One reason why v/e 
have not read the wordy lucubrations of Mr. Kron is that we are not particu- 
larly interested in the subject, and are not drawn to it by Mr. Kron's Preface, 
which is rather contemptuous respecting literary readers and literary critics. 
The defect of his writing is that it is altogether too business-like to be en- 
joyed by ordinary readers. That nine-tenths of these 800 pages will be let 
alone, we have no doubt, partly because they are unreadable, they are so dry, 
dull and prosaic. — The Mail 6^ Express, N. Y. 

We are convinced that the volume, when completed, will be one of the 
very most reliable and most readable books of travel that has ever been issued 
in connection with the sport. We feel confident th^t the work will justify 
our encomiums. It promises to be at once unique, useful and interesting. — 
Tricy:li}ig Jour)iaI, Londo7t. 

The fact is, there is an enormous amount of information in the book, and 
we should think very great labor must have gone into its composition. The 
mere mention of the departments under which different subjects are treated 
of makes forty-one numbers. Happily it is not made for reading but for refer- 
ence. Nevertheless, the author does seem to believe, with amusing self-con- 
fidence, that people are actually going to peruse his enormous volume from 
beginning to end, if not for information, then for attractiveness of style. — 
The Evening Telegram, N. Y. 

The advance sheets convince us that it will be a sijie qua non in th^ 
wheelman's library, possessing intrinsic interest of no mean order. — Wheeling. 

Contains information to be highly prized by any one intending to take an 
extended journey by wheel or carriage. The countries covered include 
Australia, America, Austria, France, India, and many other parts of the 
world. — New England Homestead, Mass. 

It will be many years before another work that even approximates " X. 
M. M." in value will ever be produced. — Wheelmen^s Record, Indianapolis. 

I2 



COMPREHENSI VENESS. 

A remarkable encyclopaedia. A monument of patience. A unique and 
curious book, which it is expected no bicyclist can possibly do without. 
Almost every subject that can possibly relate to the bicycle or its rider is 
here treated in gay and hilarious style, but with evident desire to be truthful 
and scientific in the treatment of facts. The effects of wheeling upon mind 
and body, the multifarious experiences, sensations, observations and studies 
of the writer on the highways and byways of the United States and elsewhere, 
the odd characters encountered, the literature of the bicycle, are well written. 
The mass of details has been arranged with skill, backed by enthusiasm and 
tireless patience. There may be some things of possible interest to devotees 
of the wheel omitted from this book ; but if so, we have been unable to dis- 
cover the omission. The number of slips of the pen and printer's mistakes, 
in this publication of about a million and a half words, is remarkably few. 
Despite fineness of type, the te.xt is clear and easily read. For ourselves, 
" Coasting on the Jersey Hills " and " White Flannel and Nickel-Plate," were 
the chapters enjoyed most in the perusal of this book, which is emphatically 
one for the times. — The Critic, N. Y. 

The chief characteristic of the volume is its comprehensiveness. Every 
step of the road over which the author has ridden is described with almost 
painful particularity. Nothing seems to have been too minute to escape his 
observation, or too insignificant to be undeserving of record. To Canadians, 
the most interesting portion will be the description of his experience in Can- 
ada, which he gives at great length. On the whole he speaks flatteringly of 
our country, and describes our roads as being on the average better than the 
main roads of the United States. The book is thoroughly practical, is well 
written, and must be of great value to wheeling tourists. — Canadian Wheebnan. 

Fortunately, there is- a brighter side to the picture, which owes its brill- 
iancy to individuals, rather than associations ; and we should feel deeply 
grateful to such pioneers whose experiences on wheels have been brought 
under notice through the general press, as well as by means of their own pub- 
lications. For example, both Thomas Stevens and Karl Kron have suc- 
ceeded in making known the benefits to be derived from touring, and the 
hidden beauties of nature only within the reach of itinerant cyclists. — Seiving- 
Machinc &= Cycle N'ews, London. 

Decidedly the greatest value of the work lies in its last third part — com- 
pendium of routes, riders' journals. It may yet be made completer ; but, 
even as it is, it shows pretty clearly what has been done in the sport. I am 
happy to be able to recommend the book as of a general interest and value 
for that, even alone. — Hugh Callan, M. A. of Glasgow University, author of 
" Wanderings on Wheel and on Foot through Etirofe." 

Taking all things into consideration, we believe it will always hold the 
imdisputed place of the first great work on the subject of cycling, bearing to 
all wheelmen that relation that Isaac Walton's Complete Angler bears to fish- 
ermen, the world over. — JVheelmen's Gazette, Indianapolis. 

(N) 



WORLD-WIDE SCOPE. 

To American cyclists especially, we can understand that tiiis book may 
be invaluable. Cyclists of all nations may get from it many useful " wrinkles " 
as to the choice and management of their velocipedes, the best kind of gar- 
ment to wear when " in the saddle," the most opportune hours for refresh- 
ments, the most judicious selection of foods and drinks, and innumerable 
other details. As a book of reference as to the most judicious mode of trav- 
eling on wheels in America, the distances accomplished by the author and 
other eminent bicyclists, the best routes to be chosen, and a thousand other 
kindred matters, " Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle " will be found almost 
indispensable. Even that composite person, " the general reader," and the 
man who has never mounted and never means to mount the iron horse, may, 
if their eyesight be sufficiently strong, find in these detestably close-printed 
pages, information well worth possessing on many matters besides "shop." 
The author proclaims that he is a Yankee of the Yankees. We think that 
we should have guessed as much if he had not told us so. Sam Slick himself 
has no keener eye to business, but he is as honest as he is shrewd. With 
winning straightforwardness, he plainly tells us the scope of the book, and 
makes no false or undue pretensions of any kind. It is inexpressibly sad to 
think that so genial and kindly a philosopher should, by his own weak preju- 
dice, or " by sour physician, be debarred the full fruition " of life which a 
moderate use of tobacco would give him on his journeys and at his resting 
places. — The Saturday Review, London. 

Once again must the notice of cycling matters by a mighty organ of the 
press be chronicled. The Saturday Review of last week actually devoted two 
columns of its eminently conservative space to a notice of the book by Karl 
Kron. It even went so far as to quote twenty-four lines of his poetry, which, 
to say the least of it, was inadvisable, and almost rash. Still, when the 
mighty come down from their seats in this way, we groundlings must be 
grateful for small mercies. We progress, my masters. — The Cyclist, Coventry. 

A close examination of the matter leads to the conviction that the work 
will stand as " the Domesday Book of Cycling." Karl Kron has not been 
contented with furnishing most vivid descriptions of cycling in the United 
States, about the hills, the lakes, the rivers, or cycling in one season only — 
spring, or summer, or autumn — but gives entrancing accounts of runs in 
winter; and then ravages the world to index the literature : books, maps, and 
papers. The history of every news journal is given, and an outline of every 
leading dispute now agitating the world of wheel riders. In pronouncing 
judgment upon many questions Karl Kron exhibits a very fine discrimination 
and an undoubtedly sound judgment ; and his conclusions should commend 
themselves to the consideration of English cyclists. The story of his own 
adventures is written in admirable taste, and with much picturesqueness ; and 
the book will rank as a classic on cycling. — Se-iving-Machine &= Cycle News. 

To the wheelmen of the world it appeals, its interests being in no way 
circumscribed by the limits of the American Continent. — Wheeling, London. 

(O) 



LA UDA TION A T LONDON. 

The Greek Kalends and Karl Kron's book were by many assumed to be 
synonymous, but the hope deferred has at length been fulfilled, and we are in 
possession of wliat may truly be called the first classic of cycling literature. 
Consisting of 900 pages, well and closely printed, the book offers a store of 
information which we shall not exaggerate by describing as simply marvel- 
ous. To the wheelmen of the world it appeals, its interests being in no way 
circumscribed by the limits of the American Continent. Ni 

To review this book is difficult, to find fault with it well-nigh impossible, jj 
It is what it purports to be, a description of ten thousand miles traveling by 1 
bicycle in the New World; and we venture to say that the reader who con- i 
scientiously examines its wonderful collection of facts and fancies will rise || 
from his perusal with a knowledge of America, her roads and scenery, which "| 
no other book in existence will afford him. 

There is many a noble thought nobly expressed in this book, with its ■' 
bold originality of style and daring impudence of advertisement and egotism. f| 
Karl Kron is well read and entirely free from superficialism, a searcher after Ji 
truth and a merciless prober of what he considers offenses. lie is also pos- i 
sessed of a vein of smart American humor, which illuminates the dry text of l- 
his book from beginning to end. In places, such as the inimitable chapter ,1 
devoted to his bull-dog " Curl," he soars to a pitch which reminds the reader jj 
very forcibly of Mark Twain and Max Adeler; and the cyclist who loves his |i 
dog will read this chapter over more times than once. To " Curl," whose 
noble and expressive features act as frontispiece, the book is dedicated, and 
there is a certain pathos in the selection. 

"Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle " teems with valuable information, 
supplied in witty phraseology, and as a work of standard reference and ex- | 
haustive interest is likely to remain for many a day unrivaled. In addition j 
to a literary taste, the book is distinctly appetizing from the mingled acridity I 
and simplicity of its style. It is a really wonderful work, .which we have no ^ 
hesitation in saying will be the greatest work on cycling the world has seen. 
Beside its far-reaching interest, literary style and completeness of detail, the \ 
English work to which we have referred above [" Cycling," in the Badminton i 
Library Series] sinks into insignificance; and in recommending our readers | 
to buy the book, we suggest it not only to men who buy cycling literature as 
a matter of course, but also to the large division which reads no more than it \ 
can avoid. This is a good book, written and compiled by a clever man, and | 
we hope it will be blessed with a very large circulation. — Wheeling, London. 

An American paper (the Athlete, of Philadelphia) says that the general 
English verdict on Karl Kron's book is against it. This is not so. The 
book is a good book, well worth the money, and its only hostile critics are 
two men, one of whom has compiled a very onesided English book, while the 
other, it is rumored, is about to produce another. We believe this latter 
will be good, but common modesty should have ])revented both men from 
laying themselves loose on poor Karl Kron. — Wheeling, London. 

(Pi 



CONDEMN A TION A T COVENTRY. 

Qui s'excitse s'acciise, says a very ancient proverb, and we emphatically 
deny that an excuse, however fully made, is always an ample palliative for 
an offense. Mr. Lipski, who was recently executed for murder, would, doubt- 
less, have made many excuses, but that would not have prevented the Home 
Secretary from permitting the law to take its course ; and in exactly the same 
way we are of opinion that, though Karl Kron has offered apologies for the 
commission of every literary crime in the volume under notice, he must still 
be held responsible for them, despite his efforts to "hedge." As regards 
English cycling, English institutions, and English wheelmen, Karl Kron's 
remarks are necessarily wholly " hearsay." Had he drawn his information 
from many various sources, and brought the most ordinary common sense to 
bear upon the facts so obtained, he might perchance have succeeded in writ- 
ing something worth reading. As it is, his comments upon English cycling 
matters are jaundiced and prejudiced caricatures, drawn apparently from one 
cycling publication, which has almost invariably taken the "wrong side " in 
every popular movement. With the single exception of the riding records, 
conlriljuted by Englishmen, there is not one single item having reference to 
cycling matters on this side of the Atlantic which is not jaundiced and dis- 
torted by the medium through which Karl Kron has observed it. He com- 
plains that, " out of the half-million wheelmen in England, only two dozen 
have sent him personal statistics " ; and we should say that, had but half that 
number sent him details, — provided always that the remaining dozen were 
t/ie best, — his tables would be the more valuable. In the chapter devoted to 
" Long-distance Routes and Riders " we have a fine example of the want of 
selection, if we may so call it, which distinguishes our author. He has appar- 
ently printed at length anything that has been sent to him, and whilst some 
few of the accounts are of interest, others are not worthy of the space they 
occupy ; in fact, with one or two exceptions, they are of no practical value at 
all. All Karl Kron's personal handiwork concerning English cycling is 
absolutely unreliable in anyone particular, and prejudiced to the last degree — 
the work of a ral^id partisan, written by one who does not possess the parti- 
san's excuse, who is, in short, simply too careless, or too lazy, to attempt to 
ascertain the truth upon any one of the subjects upon which he dogmatizes. 
There are constant impertinencies showered upon "the Iliffes," and libelous 
attacks upon the C. T. C. Secretary, not to mention the thousand and one 
gibes and jokes against leading practical English cyclists. Such irretrievable 
nonsense as is solemnly quoted against the N. C. U., gives a sample of the 
spirit and style in which Karl Kron treats English institutions. Evidence of 
his animus as regards the firm of Messrs. Iliffe & Son is to be found in the 
" Literature of the Wheel " chapter, whose account of the cycling papers in 
England is utterly incorrect — outside the mere registry of birth, death or 
amalgamation — and is simply a prejudiced view without any basis of fact, the 
statement that the Tricyclist lost money for its proprietors being absolutely 
untrue. — Bicycling News, pub. by Iliffe dr' So7i (known as " the Coventry ring"). 

(Q) 



COVENTRY RINGING THE CHANGES. \ 

\ 
We have no prejudice against the author, no feeling against him indi- j 

vidually, and it will be false in every way for a certain section of persons on \ 

the other side of the Atlantic to assert that ihe opinion expressed in this , 

lengthy review is unfavorable because K. K. is an American. In conclusion, 'j 

after a careful and laborious perusal of the work, our views are these : As | 

regards practical cycling, it is of little value, the views advocated being the ' 

views of a faddist of the worst order. As regards English cycling and all its J 

surroundings and concomitants, it is worse than useless, it is utterly mislead- ] 

ing. Its driest statistics and most carefully elaborated details are vitiated by • 

an obvious bias, whilst its " facts " are in the main fictions, not always desti- x 

tute of malice. As a road book, it would prove of little service, owing to the {' 

redundancy of personal details of the most microscopic interest, any decent » 

route book being more serviceable, inasmuch as the information would be J 

more easily obtained. The copious indices are decidedly over-elaborated, and 

the lists of wheelmen will be obsolete in a twelvemonth. The book is fairly 

well. printed in absurdly small type, upon a poor and thin paper, and is as far 

as English cyclists are concerned not worth the price. As a " thesaurus of 

facts," Phillips's " Things a Cyclist Ought to Know," price one penny, is i 

infinitely more reliable, whilst in other respects, the work can only be re- ♦i 

garded as an autobiography of a singularly self-sufficient mediocrity. — Bicy- I 

cling Nnvs, London weekly organ of" the Coventry ring," printers to the C. T. C. 'I 

Having secured pledges from 3000 persons to take copies of his work, 
he publishes it, and expects the 3000 to find him fresh customers, so as to 
enable him to sell 30,000. From what we know of the matter we should say 
he has spent much more in postage, printing, time and labor during the last 
four years than the best and most enterprising firm of publishers would have 
charged him for their services in putting the work in the market, and we feel 
sure that if the proverb concerning the man who is his own lawyer be true, it 
must equally apply to a man who, under such conditions as these, is his own 
publisher. There would, however, have been, without doubt, one serious 
drawback in this particular case, for no publisher who understood his busi- 
ness would have permitted his client to waste so much money on paper and 
printing, for the work is best described in the words of Macbeth : " It is a 
tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." — Land 6^ 
Water, Lojidon {article contributed by editor of the Bicycling Nezvs). 

I was soft enough not to become a subscriber to Karl Kron's work, and 
I now immensely regret it, for I am simply amazed at the extent and interest 
of the book. It appears to me to be far and away the best contribution to 
wheel literature that the world has yet seen. Statistical and historical, 
amusing and pathetic, it has charms for every reader, and is a monument of 
the ability and indefatigable industry of its author. Karl Kron's "Ten Thou- Jj 
sand Miles on a Bicycle," and his Bull-Dorg, will, I am confident, occupy a 
prominent position in the history of the cycle. I would we had an English 
Kron. — " The Tyre" in Saturday Night, Birmingham, Eng. 

(R) 



BRITISH FAIR-PLA Y. 

We deem it our duty to check any attempt at unjust criticism, and of this 
we have a glaring specimen in last week's papers. The article appearing in 
Land &= Water is really on all fours with that appearing in the Bi. News. 
Both criticisms were penned by the same hand, and the sum and substance 
of each article savors more of decided abuse than fair comment, hidden hatred 
rather than professed friendship. What has the mode of publishing a book 
to do with its merits ? Nothing, of course. The fact that there are already 
3000 subscribers to this book, which this critic has attempted to condemn, 
reflects great credit upon the author's recognized ability and worth ; therefore 
it is but right to assume that Karl Kron has the confidence of his subscrib- 
ers, — purely owing to the merit of his work, whereby the subsequent demand 
for it may yet reach the desired number, — namely, 30,000. He has produced a 
volume entirely without aid, and it has met with success. For this his critic 
resorts to " Macbeth," in order to call him an idiot. His critic's joint work, 
in connection with the Badminton Book on Cycling, has had the advantage of 
hailing from the publishing house of Messrs. Longmans, Green & Co. ; yet, 
with this great start off, we venture to assert that Karl Kron's book has 
enjoyed, and will continue to enjoy, greater popularity than that with which 
his critic's name is associated. It is the old story. Two men have fought 
for literary success. In this case Karl Kron has won, whilst his critic has 
lost, and that with ill-conceived grace and consequent mortification. Proba- 
bly he will live to see the day when he will wish he could retract his charge 
(under cover of " Macbeth ") of idiotcy against Karl Kron's labors. — Sewing- 
Machine dr= Cycle News, London. 

Several correspondents have written us, drawing contemptuous attention 
to the attacks upon Karl Kron's book made by the editor of a contemporary. 
We think the critic in question would have consulted his own dignity better 
by remembering that he was associated with the publication of another some- 
what similar volume, especially as he has to descend to the exposition of such 
Tnimitia as the printing of the word " Hinchcliffe " with a " k." If the paper 
the book is printed on is thin, so is the spirit of this critic. — Wheeling, London. 

Among the many favorable notices of the book, which have reached us, 
is the following from Mr. R. P. Hampton Roberts : " It is certainly a wonderful 
storehouse of information, and we have had something worth reading for our 
long waiting. I hope that Karl Kron will reap some pecuniary advantage in 
a large sale, in order to repay him for the years of labor he has expended 
over the work." Mr. H. R. Goodwin, of Manchester, writes us and says: 
" It is far in advance of what I expected it to be, and very well worth the 
present price of 8s. 8d." Mr. J. W. Webster, of Dublin, also writes : " Cer- 
tainly it was well worth waiting the extra time, for, even after a hasty glance 
at it, one could not help being pleased with it in every respect. Please offer 
my name again as a subscriber for his ' 2 X. M.' which he purposes publish- 
ing. I sincerely hope he will get all the support he deserves." — Wheeling, 
Lojidon, independent organ of the trade ; opposed to " the Coventry ring." 

(S) 



APPRECIATION AT THE ANTIPODES. 

Karl Kron — of whom*, I should say, nearly every cyclist this side of the 
grave has either read or heard about — appears to have more faith in human 
nature than any dozen people living. He spent upwards of four years of his 
time — and a good many dollars besides — in writing and compiling a book on 
cycling, which, for quantity of matter and reference, is not alone unique, but 
prodigious; and he hopes to sell 30,000 copies of it, a fifth of that number 
having been already issued. May he succeed! This monument of cycling 
must stand ; and, if succeeding generations are not cyclists, why, it's no fault 
of their predecessors. — " The Hub" in Australian Cycling Neivs, Melbourne. 

There is no doubt that whatever has been said in way of praise of this 
book, by the wheel literature of the world, is well merited. I have before 
occasionally alluded to it, when advance sheets have reached me, and my 
readers will be well aware by this time of its value not only as a work of 
reference, but as a means of instruction, amusement and information. In its 
review of the clubs of the world, reference is made to those in N. Z., and I 
notice several local names amongst the contributors of wheel statistics. To 
those who take an interest in cycling, or to the general reader, I recommend 
" 10,000 Miles on a Bi." as a valuable work. — A'e-w Zealand Referee. 

"Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle "has at last arrived here in Aus- 
tral" i; and, at a cursory glance through its pages, one is repaid for his pa- 
tience in waiting for its arrival. It is a creditable work, and one which will 
commend itself to all wheelmen. — Melbourne cor. {"Arabic "), in Irish Cyclist 
6^ Athlete, Dublin. 

I am astounded at its completeness and its details, and can readily see 
the four years' work spent therein. There is a great deal in it, you will ad- 
mit, that will not in any way interest an Australian ; but even if all that be 
passed by, there will still remain more than enough for our money. I may 
say that the style in which it is written is so interesting and concise (not for- 
getting the humor as well) that it makes the reading positively distinct from 
any other cycling literature. It is very different from what I e.xpected to 
peruse. Several of the pages it did my heart good to read. — Geo. R. Broad- 
bent, Melbourne, whose six years' riding record, to Oct. 3, '87, tcvw 31,620 miles. 

We have no hesitation in stating that, from a literary point of view, his 
book is certain to prove both readable and a success. — " Ollapod^'' in Melbourne 
Bulletin. 

The pages bear the impress of a clever pen, and speak volumes for the 
untiring energy and intellectual capacity of the author. — Aust. Cycling A'etvs. 

The "Australian Cycling News" was revived August 11, 1%%-] , tinder the 
tditorship of F. J. Llewelyn, and is published in Melbourne every alternate Thiers- 
day, at 5 Collins st.. West. It is mailed to any part of the world for fifty cents a 
quarter; and subscriptions at that rate, which may be sent to the Publisher of 
" Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle," zvill be duly forivarded without charge or 
commission. The first scries of the "News " was published continuously as a fort- 
nightly, from May \i, 1882, to Sept. 25, 1886, and is fully described in the book. 

(T) 



TIVO WAYS OF LOOKING AT IT. 

Whatever interest this book may have for the 3000 subscribers who have 
their names printed in the place usually assigned to the index, it will have 
small interest for the general reader. The author is eminently bumptious ; he 
disregards the ordinary method of bookmaking, and follows a plan of hi» 
own. He is a man of one idea, and that idea sticks out in his story to the 
exclusion of everything else. Though he has ridden 10,000 miles on a bicy- 
cle, he has not traveled ten honest miles with his understanding. The bicy- 
clers have queer literary tastes, and possibly they may like this sort of litera- 
ture, but it is all Dutch to the man who does his traveling on two feet instead 
of two wheels. Why on earth this self-conceited son of genius has put the 
story of his senseless wanderings through America into 908 pages, of which 
the type is so small that you must put on eyeglasses to read it, is beyond 
one's guess. The text reminds one of the young man who could boast that 
he had ascended every mountain in the United States, but when you asked 
him anything about them, he could only say that he climbed this one in so 
many hours, and that one in so many other hours, but entirely forgot when 
he was on top to look around, because he was in such a hurry to descend and 
climb the next one. For absolute stupidity, even to bicyclers, this volume 
must take the prize as being one of the most worthless volumes ever written. 
It is the work of an idiot, not of a sane man. The only sign of common sense 
is shown in the beautiful portrait of Karl Kron's favorite bull-dog, to whose 
memory the book is aptly dedicated. More rubbish was never more closely 
compacted into small space. — Boston Herald. 

Our best recommendation of this work is to say that we find it very hard 
to convey any idea of its variety to a short notice. The author has conveyed 
so much of his very marked and interesting personality into every page, Iiis 
reading and notes and views of men and things crop out so profusely, the in- 
terest never flags. Though ostensibly devoted to an account of ten thousand 
miles made on his 'cycle, "No. 234," it is an olla podrida of endless variety. 
The matter contained cannot be estimated by the number of pages. The 
small and exceedingly clear type makes it contain the substance of three or 
four volumes of respectable size. His accidents with his machine, from his 
first ride of one rod, resulting in a broken elbow and damaged machine, the 
cost of which ride he puts at $234, to the entanglement with a tow rope on the 
canal path and the runaway of the mules with the 'cycle, are all graphically 
y told and described at length. Chapters on other long-distance riders, a list 
of the original 3000 subscribers to the book (copartners he calls them) and a 
variety of other matter are included. Those who enjoy thoroughly character- 
fistic books will appreciate the one under review. Exhaustive indexes of per- 
sons and things are contained also. — Scientific American, N. Y. 

It gives a good deal of information concerning American roads; is 
crammed with statistics; and people who make long tours with horses will 
'find it an excellent guide. — Turf, Field &= Farjn, yV". Y. 
1 The best two dollars' worth ever offered to cyclists. — Spirit of the Times. 

I (A2) 



OFFICIALLY RECOMMENDED. 

The book is not one to be read through from beginning to end. It is an 
encyclopaedia of reference, and as such it is a valuable addition to literature. 
Karl Kron has given several years of his life and much of his money to the 
completion of this work, and it credits him to a great degree. The author 
is eccentricity personified, and his book is full of eccentric notions and ideas, 
but these raise it above dullness and make it all the more interesting. The 
collection of his wandering essays between two covers makes a valuable book 
and one well worth the price asked for it. The book is cheap at $2. We 
should want it in our library, and should have it there, if we had to pay $5 
for it. We hope that every League member will see his way clear to the 
purchase of the book, and we will guarantee that he will be satisfied with his 
outlay. — L. A. IV. Bitllcti)i, Boston, tveekly official organ of the League of Amer- 
ican Wheelmen. 

If we expect a story-book, we shall be disappointed, just as Bill Nye was 
in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, "because it was too wordy and lacked 
plot." But the best way to find a standpoint for judging a book is to read 
its preface, and see what the author has given us a right to expect. In the 
present case, he promises portions of a narrative nature and portions intended 
solely for reference. As a matter of convenience, then, let us arbitrarily 
divide his book into reading-chapters and reference-chapters. The former 
are in charming style, and throw a great deal of light upon the inside of 
cycling subjects. Summing the matter up, we find 244 pages thus devoted to 
narrative. This in itself is a good-sized book. 

It must not be supposed, however, that the rest of the book is unreada- 
ble. We only urge that the reference-chapters must be read with an index 
to be read with interest or profit. 

If the reader is interested in any particular subject, he has only to look 
at the index, find his subject and reference, and proceed to enlighten himself. 
So wide is the scope of the work, we doubt if it be possible for the wheelman 
to select any cycling subject that he will not find properly indexed with sev- 
eral references. Thus, by reading according to subjects, the reader who uses 
his index, will find a great deal to interest and instruct him in the chapters 
that have been frequently pronounced the most dry and tedious. There is a 
vast fund of information within some of these closely-printed statistical pages, 
and no one can expect to get it out by the same methods that he would use in 
extracting the few sparse ideas from a French novel. " This Book of Mine, 
and the Next" is a chapter that may be read with interest, as telling how the 
volume grew from 300 to 900 pages, and what the author plans for the future. 

Taking all things into consideration, strong and weak points alike, we 
believe that the author has most faithfully kept his promise and that "Ten 
Thousand Miles on a Bicycle" will always hold the undisputed place of the 
first great work on the subject of cycling, bearing to all wheelmen that rela- 
tion that Isaac Walton's Complete Angler bears to fishermen, the world over. 
— Wheeltncn's Record, Indianapolis, official organ Ind. and III. Divs. L. A.W. 

(U) 



EAS7\ WEST AND SOUTH. 

It contains much that is interesting, more that is valuable, — to the tour- 
ist, — some that is tedious in its detail, and a great ' deal that makes one 
laugh. Although we as well as many others have chaffed K. K. a good deal, 
we must admit that his book is well worth the money asked for it, and should 
be owned by every wheelman. — Bicycling World, Boston. 

To say that we are highly pleased is only putting it mild. It is a most 
valuable work of cycling information, and should be found in the library of 
every wheelman who has interest enough in the sport to want to know about 
roads and other wheelmen. The cyclist who has the means, and won't afford 
himself a copy of this gazetteer of American roads, is too small to be called 
a wheelman. One feature of the book which particularly strikes our atten- 
tion, is the author's impartiality towards all makes of machines. He favors 
none and suppresses none. This alone should commend itself to all honest 
friends of " the wheel." We consider that we were in luck to get so valuable 
a volume for so small an outlay. — Star Advocate, East Rochester, N. H. 

A handsomely bound book, which every one should read, for it is worth 
its weight in gold to every rider. It is the best bicycle-book published, and 
contains valuable road information, besides many other things interesting to 
riders of both se.xes. Every wheelman should have it. The price {$2) is 
very small, considering the bulk. — L. A. W. Pointer, Oshkosh, Wis. 

It is so seldom nowadays that we find manifestations of over-conscien- 
tiousness, that we are apt to misconstrue their outward symptoms. But it is 
developed in a limited few, nevertheless. This commendable fault, as it 
might be termed, is the one striking characteristic of Karl Kron. He is over- 
conscientious. If, when he completed his asked-for list of 3000 subscribers, 
he had rushed a hastily and ill-prepared work on to the market, it would have 
been taken as a matter of course. He would only have been following the 
example of nine-tenths of contemporary publishers. As it was, he did noth- 
ing by halves. He investigated the most insignificant facts, and went into 
the minutest details of everything he touched upon (and he touches on about 
every subject in the past and present history of American bicycling). This 
he did at an endless expenditure of time and labor, which we know will not 
be appreciated by one-fourth of those who read the book. But the result is 
a book that will live and continue to be standard authority on such matter as 
it treats of, for a long time to come. — Wheehnen's Record, Indianapolis. 

It is not a book to take up and read through for amusement, but, as an 
encyclopedia of cycling and history of the wheel, it deserves front rank among 
the books of the decade. As a directory of roads, men and places, it would 
be invaluable to one contemplating a tour; while there is enough of general 
interest to attract the attention of a person who has no connection with the 
wheel. We fear it will never become a popular book, with the mass of 
wheelmen, or, at least, that the author will never find enough remuneration in 
its publication to pay him for the many years of labor and patient attention 
to detail he has given it. — The Bicycle South, N'ew Orleans. 

(V) 



FUN FOR PENNSYLVANIANS. 

Do Pennsylvanians want " something funny " ? Then let them buy and 
read " Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." Why? Because the Philadelphia 
Press Q.-s\\% it "the most ridiculous book of the season, full of rank egotism 
and nonsense," and says " there is not the faintest reason why any one should 
buy or read it." Another Philadelphia paper, the American Athlete (edited 
by a man whose " removal for malfeasance " from a high office in the L. A. 
W. is recorded, in official language, without comment, on p. Ixxxiv. of the 
book) declares that this opinion of the Press " just about sizes it up. The 
general opinion seems to be that the work is a dismal failure. There is no 
demand for it either from wheelmen or the public. The large portion of it 
has been standing so long as to be entirely out-of-date and therefore worth- 
less ; there are many glaring inaccuracies in the statistics ; and the road-re- 
ports made by Karl himself are wofully inaccurate and misleading." The 
Philadelphia Times calls it "an odd and cranky specimen of bookmaking, 
though useful to wheelmen." The Bicycling World, of Boston, says it " con- 
tains much that is interesting, and a great deal that makes one laugh." " For 
absolute stupidity, even to bicyclers" (asserts the Boston Herald, — whose use 
of " even " shows that all bicyclers are to be despised as the stupidest of 
mortals), " this volume must take the prize, as being one of the most worth- 
less volumes ever written. It is the work of an idiot, not of a sane man." 

If these 908 pages really are " idiocy and rank nonsense," they certainly 
ought to supply at least two dollars'' worth of fun to any investigator. They are 
handsomely bound in blue and gilt, and they will be sent, boxed and prepaid, to any 
town in Pennsylvania, on receipt of price by the Publisher, Karl Kron, at the 
University Buildijig, Washington Square, Nczv York City, D. 

An American paper (the Athlete, of Philadelphia) says that the general 
English verdict on Karl Kron's book is against it. This is not so. The 
book is a good book, well worth the money, and its only hostile critics are 
two men, one of whom has compiled a very onesided English book, while the 
other, it is rumored, is about to produce another. We believe this latter 
will be good, but common modesty should have prevented both men from 
laying themselves loose on poor Karl Kron. — Wheeling, London. 

His short description of Mr. Thomas Stevens's ride is far more readable 
than the elaborations of " Around the World on a Bicycle." — Pall Mall Ga- 
zette, London. 

With the great American road-rider, the reader wanders at random from 
Maine to the iVIammoth Cave and from New York to the Mississippi, and 
takes an occasional spin into the provinces or whirls over the coral reefs of 
Bermuda . — Louisville Com m ercial. 

You have made the book so large, and the type so small, that it will be 
used, it seems to me, only as a matter of reference. If you had made it into 
about six volumes, with larger print, I should have enjoyed it better ; and still 
better if you had boiled the whole thing down into one volume of coarse 
print. — A. A. Pope, Boston, President of the Pope Mfg. Co. 

J2 



THE STORY OF STEVENS. 

What sort of a man was he who pushed a bicycle round the world ? Too 
modest a man to print any personal details in his book ; but all may be found in 
^^Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle.^'' 

Of especial interest is a biography of Thomas Stevens, beginning p. 473, 
which all who read "Around the World on a Bicycle " will be glad to see. 

— The Nation, N. Y. 

His first volume of that na?ne tells only of the tour from Calif or7iia to Persia. 
Chapters for the second volume, giving his adventures in Afghanistan, India, 
China and Japan, appear each month in "Outing" ; but a sitmmary of the wliole 
tour may be found in '■''Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." 

Thestory of Thomas Stevens's wheel around the world is graphically de- 
scribed, and in the vvoids of the renowned tourist himself. — Cape Ann Breeze. 

His short description of Mr. Thomas Stevens's ride is far more readable 
than the elaborations of "Around the World on a Bicycle." It is to be 
regretted there are not many such readable passages in the book which Mr. 
Karl Kron has not only written, but printed, pulilished and advertised, and 
undertaken the sales of, with au industry worthy of a better cause. — Pall Mall 
Gazette, London. 

The above false praise, from a lying and mean-spirited attack on Stevens's 
most entertaining book, is here j-eprinted by the Publisher, as a preface to the remark 
that said book is recotnmended in the highest tentis by " Ten Thousand Miles on 
a Bicycle " [see pp.xcvi., 4S3, 655), as well as by the chief neivspapers of Uie world. 

It is a difficult matter to get a book reviewed by the Times, but on Oct. 
l8th this paper devoted a column and a quarter to Thomas Stevens's account 
of his ride round the world, and a paragraph to Karl Kron's work. The 
Times praises Stevens's book, but is not very complimentary to Karl Kron's. 

— Wheeling, London. 

Do you wish to compare Stevens's tour with the greatest ones taken by Ger- 
man, French and Australian wheelmen ? Then consult the long-distance chap- 
ters in " Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." 

It gives brief accounts of Thomas Stevens's great ride, and the trips of 
many other long-distance wheelmen, and tells of Canadian and foreign roads 
and riders. — Hartford Fvenijig Post. 

Interesting statements about Thomas Stevens and other long-distance 
tourists. — Wheelmen's Record, Fndian.ipolis. 

I would much rather undertake to ride ten thousand miles on a rail, not 
to speak of a bicycle, than to write such a book as this, containing Soo pages 
of upwards of Sod words each. It contains the complete literature of bicy- 
cling, and I know not what else besides. It is a monument of patience and 
energy only to be compared with Webster's Dictionary, or the Great 
Pyramid. There is a great deal of entertaining as well as instructive and use- 
ful reading in it Of course I have not read a fortieth part of it. Nobody ever 
will or can. But everybody who owns, or means to own, a bicycle will read 
jsome of it, to his undoubted pleasure and profit. — The Bookmart, Pittsburg, Pa. 

M2 



RECOGNITION BY THE L. A. W. 

Do the officers of the L. A. IV. think the Publisher deserves any reward for 
investing- $12,000 /'« the circidation of an elaborate electioneering doctiment in their 
behalf? If so, let each of them put 2ip $2. for " Ten Thousajid Miles on a Bicycle" 
and persuade his friends to do likewise. 

We hope that every League member will see his way clear to the pur- 
chase of the book, and we will guarantee that he will be satisfied with his out- 
lay. The book is cheap at $2. We should want it in our library, and should 
have it there, if we had to pay $5 for it. — L. A. IK Bulletin, Boston, official 
weekly organ of the League of Atnerican Wheelmen. 

Do the officers of the L. A. JV. think the Tublisher helped their prosperity by 
helping expose the hollowness of a privately-02vned London trading concern, which 
attempted to usurp their functions ? Then let them help advertise and circulate 
" Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle.''^ 

The addenda gives a clear and impartial statement of the late diiidculties 
in the League, resulting in the removal of the Secretary-Editor; also particu- 
lars.of the theft of the L. A. W. badge by the C. T. C. — Wheelmen^ s Record. 

To any one who takes an interest in the history of the wheel and the 
League, the book is invaluable. — The Bicycle South, Nexv Orleans. 

Do the officers and members of the L. A. ]V. wish to be itifor/ned as to its 
origin, its struggles and achievements ? Do they wish to have at hand, for ready 
7-eference, a summary of its several constitutions and modes of government, a state- 
ment of its treaties with the railroads, a list of its officers from the outset, and sta- 
tistics of the growth of tnembership ? Then let each of them add to his library 
"Ten Thousniui Aliles on a Bicycle." 

The 36th chapter contains a history of the League and of every cycling 
association of a legislative and protective nature in the world. I used to 
think [ was as well posted as the average cyclist on these questions ; but, 
after reading advance sheets of the foregoing, I find that what I Jcnew would 
not have filled a dozen pages, while what I did not know Karl Kron uses 38 
closely filled ones in telling me. — "The Owl," in L. A. W. Bulletin. 

Does any one 7uish to know the ages of League officers, tourists, and other 
prominent wheelmen ? The birthdays of nearly 100 of them are starred in the 
index of "Ten Thousand Allies on a Bicycle." 

It contains a great amount of information about the roads in the Eastern 
part of the country, dips into League politics, and tells of many other 
matters of a statistical nature of interest to wheelmen. But if wheelmen or 
others open the book with the expectation of finding much entertaining read- 
ing in the 675,000 words within the binding they will be disappointed. Still, 
considering the vast amount of work which it plainly has taken to bring 
the book out, it is well worth the price. %2. — Hartfoj-d Evening Post. 

Taking all. things into consideration, we believe it will always hold the 
undisputed place of the first great work on the subject of cycling, bearing to 
all wheelmen that relation that Isaac Walton's Complete Angler bears to fish- 
ermen, the world over. — IVheelmeti's Gazette, Indianapolis. 

V2 



''CO-OPERATIVE TAILORING'' AND TOURING. 

For complete exposition of the London "C. T. C." and list of "the council- 
ors " employed in upholding its 07vner, who was dismissed from court as a self-con- 
fessed forger {l>y Mr. Justice Wills, Nov. 22, i2&6),see "Ten Thousand Miles on 
a Bicycle." Mailed postpaid to any part of Great Britain on receipt of 2>s. 8d. 

This book on bicycling is tlie most thorough that any recreative sport 
has ever had published. It is in reality a gazetteer, — an encyclopaedia on 
wheels, so to speak, — and contains every fact worth knowing. As the first 
genuine classic for wheelmen, it should be in every bicycler's book-case. — 
Boonville Advertiser, Mo. 

Humors of collegiate velocipeding iti iSGc), condensed from contemporary rec- 
ords. See " Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." ( The chapter called " Bone- 
shaker Days" givingcareful details of the evolution of the modern bicycle from the 
v€loce of'6() and its predecessor of i^ig, will be mailed separately for 25 cents.) 

Contains pretty much everything which has , been said, or can be said, 
about wheels and wheelmen. — Baltimore American. 

For reports from English, Scotch and Irish tourists ; for a7inual mileage 
records from clergymen, lawyers, and business men in Great Britain and Aus- 
tralia, as well as Canada and the United States, see " Ten Thousand Allies on a 
Bicycle." 

This is a pretty large contract, but in a great many respects it has been 
fulfilled. The book has distinct value to bicyclers as giving a mass of in- 
formation about roads, distances, hotels, etc., etc. — The Epoch, N. Y. 

For racing-rules in the United States, Canada, England, Ireland, France, 
Germany, Australia and Neiv Zealand, see "Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." 

He has done his work faithfully and written a book which the wheelmen 
needed. Probably that was all he intended to do. He deserves credit ac- 
cordingly. — Buffalo Express. 

For reports from the "Big Four" and " Daiun East" touring parties of 
1883-6, see "Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." 

We have read with great pleasure this elegantly bound work, whose 
author and publisher has done so much to promote cycling in this country. — 
Bangor Commercial, Me. 

For history of the English "National Cyclists'' Union" and the si7nilar gov- 
erning bodies of several other countries, see " Te7t Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." 

It has assumed enormous dimensions, and needs only to be seen to be 
appreciated. It is a complete encyclopaedia of wheeling progress, and no 
man fond of a bicycle can well afford to be without it. — East End Signal, 
Cleveland, O. 

For testimony of local English sufferers, against the " danger-board hotels " 
of the London " C. T. C" consult "Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." 

We most cordially recommend it as a valuable guide and aid to the tour- 
ing wheelman, and all others seeking knowledge of routes and distances in 
the vast extent of territory the volume covers. — Cape Attn Breeze. 

One of the biggest things on wheels ever attempted. — Sporting Life. 

B3 



A FIVE DOLLAR BOOK FOR TIVO DOLLARS. 

The enormous risk inairred by the Publisher in putting so low a price as $2 
upon a volume which would retail for at least $5, if sold through the ordinary 
methods of the book-trade, can only be justified by an unprecedented sale. Do 
wheelmen loish to see " Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle " have greater vogue 
than the representative book of any other sport ? Then let each buyer exhibit it 
to his acquaintances, and help to secure its purchase by the local libraries. 

Whatever may be said of Karl Kron's intelligence and personal pecul- 
iarities, his business-faculty is abnormally small, as it quite often is with 
literary men. His book will be a failure unless every wheelman in the land 
subscribes for it. — Al Y. cor. of A?nerican Wheelman, St. Louis. 

Kron has given us more pork for our $2 than we want. I,arger print 
and less matter would have been more popular with the average reader. But 
I enjoy the book — parts of it — and I propose to do all I can to help him to a 
fat pocket, for his labor in the interest of wheeling. — Little Rock cor. American 
Wheelman, St. Louis. 

Pretty or ugly, dry or entertaining (the book is all of these), fraternal 
sympathy should send the hand of every wheelman in the land down into his 
pocket, for the sake of a hard-working, self-sacrificing historian like Karl 
Kron. — "Tha'uix," in American Athlete, Philadelphia. 

His perseverance is of the heroic older, and it should certainly meet with 
ample reward. So we say to every wheelman. Do all you can to help the 
visionary entliusiast who has lost two good years working out an idea, which 
was solely based on " love of sport " at the outset, but on the financial suc- 
cess of which now depends a wheelman's future welfare. — The Wheel, Al Y. 

We have not read the wordy lucubrations of Mr. Kron. The ground over 
which he wheeled and whirled himself abounds in picturesque and romahtic 
scenery, but it might as well have lain in the midst of a desert for any use that 
he has made of it in his descriptions. He is lavish, however, in indices. There 
is a General Inde.x, an Inde.x of Places, an Index of Persons, a. catalogue raisonnd 
of Literature of the Wheel, a list of his Three Thousand Subscribers, a 
Dictionary of Wheelmen and a Trade Directory. We have thus a thesaurus 
of facts, a statistical guide, a cyclopaedia, a dictionary and a gazetteer — in a 
word (or rather in eight hundred pages), a " book which is 7iot a book." — 
The Mail (S^ Express, A'. Y. 

15ut out it is at last, and, like a dinner made all the more acceptable from 
a long wait, its contents are eagerly devoured by the cycler. The descriptions 
of the author's rides are sometimes amusing and thrilling. Often, however, 
he falls into prolixity. The pages of this book, whose ponderosity shows 
the extent of the sport, are like the roads written of — some very good, some 
only passable and some bad. Of the latter there are not many, and to the 
skillful reader, like the skillful rider, the badness may all disappear before they 
are finished. — St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 

A book of American roads for men who travel upon the bicycle. Its 
ideal is that of a statistical guide, a thesaurus of facts. — Llinneapolis Tribune. 

La 



REWARD WANTED: $bo,ooo. 

Do 7vlieelmen think the Publisher deserves mty recompense for bringing out 
luhat the "Boonville Advertiser " calls " tlie jnosl thoroicgh book that a7ty recrea- 
tive sport has ever had published" ? Then let them buy " Ten Thousand Miles 
on a Bicycle" and help him make the .phenomenal sale of Tp,ooo copies requisite 
for its success. This is the straight tip. 

In view of the great quantity of matter here condensed and classified, the 
picture of the bull-dog which embellishes the first page, would seem to be a 
fitting emblem of the perseverance with which the author has pushed to com- 
pletion his three years' task. Starting with a less comprehensive plan, which 
he thought would occupy him about six months, he constantly found new 
wants to satisfy and new material to work up, until, tired with laborious writ- 
ing, his right arm gave out and he was forced to learn to drive his pen with 
his left ! Such devotion should not go unrewarded, and the wheel-loving pub- 
lic, surely, will repay their earnest, thorough and competent chronicler for his 
pains, by extending to this compact cyclopaedia of their sport a hearty wel- 
come. — Boston Advertiser. 

The Publisher has staked $r:',ooo on an attempt to prove the falsity of the 
follozuing expert opinion, zaritten to him by the present Seci-etary-Editor of the 
League (Jan. 23, 1SS4) : "Experience will show you that, no matter how much 
the bicyclers may howl for a thing, they fail to come to time when asked to 
pay for it." Do wheelmen zaish to see this imputation of pemiriousness removed 
most impressively ? Then let them pay promptly for 30,000 copies of " Ten 
Thousand Miles o)z a Bicycle." 

The cyclist who has the means, and won't afford himself a copy of this 
gazetteer of American roads, is too small to be called a wheelman. — Star 
Advocate. This is a notable book for many reasons, but chiefly, perhaps, in 
showing what tremendous perseverance and powers of application can reside 
in one man. — Yale Literary Magazine. It is a monument of patience and 
energy only to be compared to Webster's Dictionary or the Great Pyramid. — 
The Bookjnart, Pittsburg, Pa. 

An enormous volume, filled with the good things the cycler so delights 
to read, time and again, with never-failing interest. It should find a ready 
sale. — Lotiisville Commercial. 

If ever any man deserved to reap the. reward of perseverance, it is this 
publisher. — The Cyclist, Coventry, Eng. We really consider the wonderful 
perseverance and tenacity of purpose displayed by the author deserve reward- 
ing. — Irish Cyclist ^ Athlete. He deserves to get on, for he has pertinacity 
enough for twenty men. — Wheel Life, London. His pertinacity is undying. — 
C. T. C. Gazette, London. Men may come and go ; championships be won ; 
reputations made and shattered; but still Karl Kron worries on — Wheeling, 
London. He is now exercising all that perseverance and enterprise so pecul- 
iar to Americans. — A'iTC Zealand Peferec. These three years of solid work 
have been well spent. The pages speak volumes for the untiring energy and 
intellectual capacity of the author. — Australian Cycling A^ews. 



SENDING BOOKS '^ ON APPROVAL 

Any one who holds or has held the office of " consul," or a higher office, in 
the L A W or C. W. A. ; any librarian, clergyman, lawyer, physician, den- 
tist journalist, merchant, government employee or college graduate; any 
citizen of legal age whose application shall be recommended by one of my 
" copartners " or a later buyer of the book, may sign and forward the ap- 
pended application-form, and the request will be promptly attended to. 

If applications reach me from Canada, I shall order duty-paid books to 
be forwarded by my Montreal agent (A. T. Lane, of 1421 St. Catherine st.), 
so that no further customs charge can be levied on them. Applications from 
any colony in Australia may be sent to my agent in Victoria {W. J. Parry, of 
Wills St Sandhurst) ; but such senders should substitute his name for mme, 
and also " 8s. 8d.," " is.," and " 7s. 8d.," in place of $2, 20 cents and $1.80. 

To Karl Kron, at the University Building, Nezv York City, D. 
Dear Sir —I wish to buy a copy of ^^ Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle," pro- 
vided a month^s examination shall cause me to approve it, as worth the $2 charged. 
I therefore enclose 20 cents in postage-stamps, to cover the cost of sending me a 
specimen, and I will immediately ackncnvledge its arrival by mailing to you a postal- 
card inscribed as follcrws : " Having THIS day received the book, whose 

DELIVERY CHARGE OF 20 CENTS I PAID YOU FOR IN ADVANCE, I AGREE TO 
WRITE YOU ANOTHER LETTER, WITHIN A MONTH FROM DATE, AND EITHER 
ENCLOSE $1.80 IN FULL PAYMENT, OR ELSE NOTIFY YOU THAT I HOLD THE 
VOLUME (IN AS UNSOILED CONDITION AS WHEN RECEIVED) FOR RESHIPMENT 

AT YOUR ORDER." [Here sign and date the duplicate form retained.] 

As re<rards the latter alternative, J agree to pack the book in the same paste- 
board box or tin corners which enclosed it on its arrival, to re-wrap and label tt as 
directed, and to mail you a report of my disposal of it, in one of the following 

forms • (I) " I ENCLOSE RECEIPT OF THE EXPRESS COMPANY, SHOWING THAT 
THE BOOK HAS BEEN PREPAID TO DESTINATION REQUESTED IN YOUR LETTER 
WHICH SENT ME IS CENTS FOR THAT PURPOSE ;" ^r ./.T^V (2) " I THIS DAY 
DEPOSITED IN THE POST-OFFICE THE BOOK HELD BY ME AT YOUR ORDER, 
AFTER ATTACHING THERETO THE PREPAID LABEL WHICH YOU SENT ME 
WITH 17 CENTS IN POSTAGE STAMPS APPENDED; " Or else : (3) " I THIS DAY 

HANDED THE BOOK TO MR. , AS REQUESTED IN YOUR LETTER, AND 

TOOK HIS RECEIPT THEREFOR."' „,,,./ 

I also agree that, in case of remcrval from torvn {after giving a hold-at-dis- 
posal" notice, without receiving any "directions for disposal" in return) I will 
notify you either that I hold the book at my new residence, or else that I have ar- 
ranged with a friend to obey your directions at the first-named town. 

Finally, I declare that I have signed and dated a duplicate of this present 
application-form, and that, when I send you a postal-card acknowledging the arri- 
val of book, I will write the date of said card upon said duplicate, at the end of its 
first paragraph, and will file the duplicate in the book, as a reminder of tne date 
when the month's loan thereof expires. , . i 

[Name, address, and date to be written below. Prepay by 2-cent stamp.] 



A MOXTH'S READIXG FOR A (2UARTER-D0LLAR. 

Any one who holds or has held the office of " consul," or a higher office, in 
the L. A. W. or C. W. A. ; any librarian, clergyman, lawyer, physician, den- 
tist, journalist, merchant, government employee or college graduate; any 
citizen of legal age whose application shall be recommended by one of my 
" copartners " or a later buyer of the book, may sign and forward the ap 
])ended application-form, and the request will be promptly attended to. 

If ai)plications reach me from Canada, I shall order duty-paid books to 
be forwarded by my Montreal agent (A. T. Lane, of 142 1 St. Catherine st.), 
so that no further customs charge can be levied on them. Applications from 
any colony in Australia may be sent to my agent in Victoria (W. J. Parry, of 
Wills St., Sandhurst) ; but such senders should substitute his name for mine, 
and also " 8s. 8d.," " is.," and " 7s. 8d.," in place of $2, 20 cents and $1.80. 

To Karl A'rou, at the University Building, A'ew York City, D. 
Dear Sir :—I zvish to buy a copy of ''Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle," pro- 
vided a month's examination shall cause me to approve it, as worth the $2 charo-ed. 
I therefore enclose 20 cents in postage-stamps, to cover the cost of sending tne a 
specitnen, and I will immediately achnoiuledge its arrival by inailing to yoit^ a postal- 
card inscribed as folhnos : "Having THIS d.a.y received the book, whose 

DELIVERY CHARGE OF 20 CENTS I PAID YOU FOR IN ADVANCE, I AGREE TO 

WRITE YOU ANOTHER LETTER, WITHIN A MONTH FROM XIATE, AND EITHER 

ENCLOSE $1.80 IN FULL PAYMENT, OR ELSE NOTIFY YOU THAT I HOLD THE 

•volume (IN AS UNBOILED CONDITION AS WHEN RECEIVED) FOR RESHIPMENT 

AT YOUR ORDER." [Here sign and date the duplicate form retained.] 

As regards the latter alternative, I agree to pack the book in the same paste- 
hoard box or tin corners zvhich enclosed it on its arrival, to re-wrap and label it as 
directed, and to mail yon a report of my disposal of it, in one of the follcnving 
forms: (i) " I enclose receipt of the express company, showing that 

THE BOOK has BEEN PREPAID TO DESTINATION REQUESTED IN YOUR LETTER 
WHICH SENT ME 15 CENTS FOR THAT PURPOSE ;" w f/jY .• (2) "I THIS DAY 
DEPOSITED IN THE PO.ST-OFFICE THE BOOK HELD BY ME AT YOUR ORDER, 
AFTER ATTACHING THERETO THE PREPAID LABEL WHICH YOU SENT ME 
WITH 17 CENTS IN POSTAGE STAMPS APPENDED; " or else : (3) " I THIS DAY 

HANDED THE BOOK TO Mr. , AS REQUESTED IN YOUR LETTER, AND 

TOOK HIS RECEIPT THEREFOR." 

/also agree that, in case of remirval from toti'n (after giving a " hold-at-d/s- 
posal" notice, without receiving any " directions for disposal" in return), I will 
notify you either that I hold the book at my 7te-w residence, or else that I have ar- 
ranged with a friend to obey your directions at the first-named toivn. 

Finally, I declare that I have signed and dated a duplicate of this present 
application-form, and that, when I send you a postal-card acknoivledging the arri- 
val oj book, I 'Will -write the date of said card upon said duplicate, at the end of its 
first paragi-aph, and 7vill file the duplicate in the book, as a reminder of the date 
when the month's loan thereof expires. 

[Name, address, and date to be written below. Prepay bv 2-cent stamp.] 

I3 



PROSPECTUS OF ''MY SECOND TEX THOUSANDP 

On the first and last pages of the latest-written chapter in my book 
(Dec. 31, 1886; pp. 572, 590), I mention the necessity of a supplementary 
volume (" 2 X. M."), to contain the stock of road-information even then left 
on my. hands, in spite of my having printed nine times the mass of matter 
promised by my first prospectus. The possibility of such a supplement had 
occurred to me as early as May, 1885, as shown by allusions on pp. 211, 501 ; 
and my formal " proposals " for it, on pp. 716, 717, were written in Sept., 1SS6. 
Events of the year-and-a-half which has since elapsed have shown that the 
suggested book cannot be brought out as early as 1S90; perhaps not at all. 

Hence, in putting out a feeler for evidence as to whether it maybe worth 
my while to risk a second experiment as a publisher, I desire to put no real 
obligation upon those of my copartners who may vote to encourage that e.x- 
periment. I do not, as before, ask them to jjledge any money, even condi- 
tionally; and, as I do not promise ever to issue the book, I will not consent 
to accept any money on its account until after it is issued. If any cash be 
sent me in advance, I shall at once return it ; for I will not again give any 
one tli£* chance to indulge in the hallucination that, at some remote past time 
of " sul)scribing," he sent the price of the book instead of the pledge to pay. 

I should be gratified if a third of my original subscribers of 1884-5, would 
sign the certificate at the foot of this page, in token that they appreciate what 
I ha\i already done, and that they think it probable, in case I ever ventur^ 
upon a supplementary book, that they may be willing to buy it at two-thirds 
the regular rate. My own agreement to allow them this chance, in return for 
the "moral support " implied in the ability to enroll their names as approv- 
ing patrons of " X. M. M.," is the only obligation that is assumed about " 2 
X. M.," on either side. Unless at least 1000 such names are enrolled, with- 
out any other effort than the circulation of this general appeal, I shall not be 
likely to attempt such a book at all. If printed, I shall include in it a roll of 
these supporters, arranged in chronological order, according to the dates of 
their signatures; and also a summary of the advice which they mav have 
given me about the contents of the book, as requested on pp. 716, 717. I 
hope each supporter will consent to read those ])ages anew, as a ]ireliminarv 
to filing with me a signed and dated copy of the following formula : 

/;/ order to formally certify my satisfaction 7vith " Ten ThoKsatid Miles on a 
Bicycle,'^ and to encourage the preparation of a supplementary volume on Ameri- 
can roads, I hereby authorize Karl Kron to print my name in the list of supporters 
of his proposed second book (to be called " My Second Ten Thousand" containing 
not less than 300 pages of large type, with at least 250 %vords to the page, and retail- 
ing at $1.50) ; and I agree that, if at any future time I receive fiotice from him 
that such a book has been published, I tvill reply within a month, and either en- 
close a dollar to pay for a copy or else give notice that I resign the privilege [which 
K. K. ensures to tne in return for the present pledge) of securing one from him at 
two-thirds the regular rate. 

[Name, address, date and occupation to be plninlv written below. Prepay by a 2-cent stamp.], 

K3' 



ArrOGRAPHS AND FOR TRAITS. 

''No. 3600'' was the final fly-leaf signed by me for the " sul^scrilHis' 
autograph edition '' (see pp. xx., 710) ; but, as I expect that no mure than fi\ c- 
sixths of these will be claimed by the men whose names are written upon 
them, I can mail copies to any new buyers who may care enough al)out tlie 
matter to pav a five-cent fee. If preferred, I can write the buyer's own name, 
on a duplicate of one of these leaves, instead of sending an " original " num- 
bered leaf addressed to a subscriber. In case such a fly-leaf reaches either a 
new buyer or an old subscriber, independently of the book, I would remind' 
him that it should be pasted in at the front part thereof, just before the dog'& 
head; and perhaps a little trimming of the margins may first be necessary. 
When a subscriber wishes to claim his book at some other town than the one 
where I have deposited his autographed copy, I do not order the identical 
book reshipped to him, but let him have another (perhaps from a stock already 
waiting in that second town), and ask him to paste in it the duplicate numbered 
flv-leaf which I send him. Depositarie* are requested, before selling an un- 
called for sub. book at the regular $2 rate, to pull out its fly-leaf and return 
the same to me in next following report. This autographed sheet contains a 
small cut of the University Building, as noted on p. 434. 

As regards my special edition de luxe (on heavy paper, tinted and calen- 
dered ; only 200 copies printed), I can supply it in sheets at $2, or in the reg- 
ular blue muslin binding at $2.25 per copy, but I reserve the right to advance 
the price without notice, as the remnant decreases (present stock: 150). 

As I intend hereafter to operate a type-writer and seldom use a pen, I 
shall attach no autographs to any second book I may publish. The idea has 
occurred to me, however, that a page of the original manuscript of " X. M. 
Miles " might be readily bound in at the end of " 2 X. M.," in case I ever issue 
such a volume, and in case the advance supporters of the same should request 
me so to do. I also offer them another notion in regard to its make-up, — being 
".ed to the offer by remembering certain requests that I "exchange photo- 
t;raphs," or insert my portrait in " X. M. M." In explaining on p. 2S0 
why I invariably refuse such requests (though very glad to receive the like- 
ness of any of my correspondents who will thus favor me), I present as a 
reason my dislike of any personal notorietv. I object to having my appear- 
ance known to any save my private acquaintances. I decline to limit my 
liberty by giving strangers the power to identify me, since "to see me against 
my will is to rob me." Nevertheless, I feel no objection to letting any one 
know how I looked as a boy, years ago; and in case any considerable curios- 
ity exists among my copartners to see my face as it appeared in 1853, '55, '58, 
02, '65, '67, and '69 (" bone-shaker days "), I may decide to gratify it by re- 
])roducing pictures of those dates in a single photogravure for " 2 X. M." 
I'rovided, therefore, that half my proposed roll of 1000 f)atrons for that pro- 
l"iosed book declare themselves as desirous of seeing what sort of a looking 
creature I was between the ages of 6 and 23 years, I shall have a fair excuse 
for indulging in a custom which usually seems laughable for its vanitv. 

L3 



CHA r TER PREFERENCES. 

Chapters of special interest are : "Kentucky and its Mammoth Cave," 
" Coasting on the Jersey Hills," " In the Down East Fogs," " Straightaway 
for Forty Days," " From the Thousand Islands to the Natural Bridge." — Louis- 
ville Cotninercial. 

Does the tourist wish to know about Manhattan Islaiut / — the best /nodes of 
entering or leaving it with a bicycle 1 — the ferries, car-lines and steamboats by 
which he may be carried to, through and around it? — its hotels and restaurants? 
— its guide-books, maps and " sights " ? Then let him study the index of " Ten 
Thousand Miles on a Bicycle," and purchase for pocket use its 37 pages devoted 
to the region of the metropolis (25 c. postpaid). 

" Around New York" is an extremely interesting chapter, full of infor- 
mation to any who may wish to visit this "small world of itself." There is 
not a chapter in the book which is not wortli, alone, more than the price of 
the volume — Star Advocate. (Each chapter, in sheets, 25 c.) 

For ourselves, " Coasting on th(^Jersey Hills" and " White Flannel and 
Nickel Plate " were the chajiters enjoyed most in the jierusal of this book, 
which is emphatically one for the times. — jyie Critic, A'. I'. 

Tor full details of the only hundred mile sti-aightaway race yet wheeled in 
America ; and of many long Canadian tours by parties and individuals, read the 
Ontario chapter in ^'Ten Thousand. Allies on a Bicycle." 

We find more good reading in " Straightaway for Forty Days"; and in 
"A Fortnight in Ontario " a most interesting account of the original Big 
Four road race, in which the late Cola Stone and George Webber were 
the first and second successful contestants. Last of all that may be read 
with interest is the chapter " This Book of Mine and the Ne.\t." — IVheelmen's 
Record, Indianapolis. 

We have been highly entertained in reading the Preface, which is quite 
a volume in itself. — Star Advocate, East Rochester, JV. H. 

Une reason why we have not read the wordy lucubrations of Mr. Kron is 
that we are not particularly interested in the subject, and we are not drawn 
to it by Mr. Kron's Preface, which is rather contemptuous respecting literary 
readers and literary critics. — The Mail &^ Express, A'. Y. 

To the ordinary reader, not especially interested in bicycling, the Preface 
is the best part of the book. It- is humorous, frank and conceited. The body 
of the book is statistical and contains every species of information which a 
bicycler can need. — A^ew Haven Palladium. 

The portions of the book that I most particularly liked were, first of all, 
the opening chapter, " On the Wheel," which I consider the masterpiece ; 
then the chapters on " Curl," " White Flannel and Nickel Plate," " Castle 
Solitude," " Bermuda " and " Bone-Shaker Days," — preference given according 
to the order named. The extraneous chapters are certainly amusing. All 
lovers of the dog must like to read the chapter on " Curl," — and who is there 
that does not love a dog .' I think one could find a greater number who do 
not love their own race.-—;/. /. B., San Francisco. 



H/STOA]' OF WHEEL LITERATURE. 

Do yoti want information about all that has (hen printed in regard to cycling ? 
Then consult " Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle.'^ Its special chapter on the 
subject (48 pages of 43,000 7vords) gi7'es a full history to August, 18S6, attd is 
tompleted by addenda (ii pages of lo.ooo 7vords) to May, 1887. 7/5t' indexes to 
this immense mass colder six pages of fine type, and give alphabetical references 
to 200 books and pamphlets, \2C^ journals, and 300 'writers, editors, publishers 
i:ud printers. {Chapter mailed separately for 25 f. ; addenda and intlexes for z^c.) 

The chapter on "The Literature of the Wheel " is an exhaustive piece 
of compilation, and is worth the hundreds of hours the author is particular to 
state he spent thereon. — The Epoch, jV. V. 

For 7iiorks on tricycling, training, touring, racing, 7vhecl-mechaniini and 
numberless other subjects, consult " Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle!" 

His chapter on the " Literature of the Wheel " embraces pretty nearly 
everything which has ever been printed in connection with cycling in the 
(,)ld World and the New ; and certainly no such compendium of information 
has ever before appeared. — Wheeling, London. 

For maps, guides and road-books of the various .States and countries, 7vith de- 
tails as to style, scale, date, price and publisher, consult " Ten Thousand Miles 
i>n a Bicycle.'''' 

He ravages the world to index the literature : books, maps and papers. 
The history of every news journal is given, and an outline of every leading 
dispute now agitating the world of wheel-riders. In pronouncing judgment 
upon many questions, he exhibits a very fine discrimination; and his conclu- 
sions should commend themselves to the consideration of English cyclists. — 
.Scii'ing-Machine e^ Cycle Xc7vs, Loiulon. 

For railroad and steamship pamphlets useful to the cycler ; for roi/te-sli/ s, 
distance-tables, time-cards aiul calendars, consult" Ten Thousand Miles on a //- 
,1 ■<■/('.■' The sheets of "Literature " chapter will be mailed separately for 25 c. 

A bulky volume in which the author seeks to do for the bicycle and the 
literature of that machine what the gorgeous guide-books of summer travel 
do for the railroads. — .Vctuark Advertiser, A'. J. 

For an account of the cycling journals in all countries and languages, their 
births ami deaths, their successes and failures, consult " Ten Thous. Miles on a Bi.'" 

If Karl Kron ever rewrites the chapters relating to " journalism," in his 
remarkable and standard work, the remarkable history of the " Exodus from 
the Coventry Ring " would form interesting reading. — Seiuing-Machine &^ 
Cvcle Ne^vs. The addenda contains the history of cycling journalism up to 
date of the publication of the book. — Wheelmen^s Record, Indianapolis. 

Decidedly the greatest value of the work lies in its last third part — com- 
pendium of routes, riders' journals. It may yet be made completer ; but, 
even as it is, it shows pretty clearly what has been done in the sport. I am 
happy to be able to recommend the book as of a general interest and value 
for that, even alone. — PPugh Callan, M. A. of Gla.<:g07o University, author of 
" Wanderings on Wheel and on Foot through Europe.'''' 

(T2) 



A GUIDE FOR BEGIXXERS. 

Do heginiiers on the wheel want a guide that shall tell them 'where to look for 
all existing information? Let them buy '■'Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." 

We feel no hesitation in saying that this is a book which it would be 
greatly worth the while of all bicyclers to get. Those who are just begin- 
ning the sport will find it a work of absorbing interest. More than that, tiie 
author's enthusiasm is contagious. The tired cycler who conies in from a 
long or hilly jaunt and takes up this book will soon lose his sense of weari- 
ness and the recollection of steep ascents ; his spirits will return, and he will 
eagerly lay plans for the morrow. Even when the novelty wears off, he will 
not forget his indebtedness to Karl Kron. — A'eiv Englander. 

For legal opinions and books as to cyclers'' rights and liabilities upoji the road, 
see "Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." 

It describes, in the clearest language, the various trips in the United 
States and Canada, which are practicable for bicycles, mentioning points of 
interest along the route ; it tells in amusing fashion some of the authar's ex- 
periences ; it has lists of wheel literature, of the clubs, of the wheelmen iir 
the various cities and towns in each State of the Union ; it gives advice about 
hotel charges, transportation ta.xes, and general traveling expenses ; and 
it is', in short, an encyclopaedic guide for bicycle-riders. — San Francisco Ar- 
gonaut. 

Do you zvish to study the er-idence, before securing a mileage register? Cy- 
clometers ofi^ varieties are gi^'en nearly loo bits of testimony, good and bad, in 
the contributors'' records to '■''Ten Thousand JMiles on a Bicycle.^'' 

To wheelmen who intend to take long tours through the country, the 
book will be of great value. It is a manual of minute directions as to roads, 
routes and other particulars of practical importance. — Yale Courant. 

For list of books and pamphlets on the construction and repairs of roads, and 
of bicycles, see "Ten Thousand Allies 07i a Bicycle." 

A treasury of information to wheelmen about routes, hotels, personal 
experiences, and bicycling matters in general. It might easily have been 
rendered much more enjoyable and useful, yet it does not lack either spirit 
or information, and we do not doubt that many of its readers will like it 
greatly. — TJie Congregationalist, Boston. 

The Valley of 'Virginia, — "the incomparable Shenandoah." For 7'ario//.: 
reports and statistics, see "Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." 

It is simply what it claims to be — a book of American roads for men 
who travel on the bicycle. Wheelmen will find it useful, notwithstanding it 
is an "odd and cranky " specimen of book-making. — Pliiladelphia Times. 

For history of "Canadian Wheelmen'' s Association " (rules, officers and pub- 
lications) see "Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." 

This volume of 900 pages is not only a complete gazetteer of American 
roads suitable to the bicycle, but it contains a mass of information in regard 
to topics of interest to wheelmen. There is also an immense amount of dis- 
ciu'sive matter. — San Francisco Chronicle. 

\i 



A DIRECTOR V OF CLUBS AXD CLU'BMEX. 

Do yon want the addresses of the cycling enthusiasts in ez'ery State of the 
Union ' Then consult the appendix of " Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." 

The names of the 3000 subscribers he captured are printed alphabetic- 
ally and then printed in geographical order according to residence. This 
takes sixty-five pages. — Buffalo Express. 

Do yon want the dates when the chief clubs were organized, and official titles 
of their leading vieinbers until the spring of '86 ? See " Ten Thousand Miles on 
a Bicycle." 

The " Directory of ^^'ileeh1lell " alone is worth more than double the 
price of the book to dealers, tourists, and all interested in cycling. — Star Ad- 
vocate, East Rochester, X. H. (Mailed for 25 c.) 

Poetns and parodies from tiventy ivell-kncnvn authors have been reprinted in 
"Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle," and have been highly commended ; but some 
critics assert that e^'en these are less admirable than the monumental roll of copart- 
ners' signatures. 

The names of the 3000 subscribers that Kron " bagged " are printed in 
full ; and these, as literature, are better than the poems or parodies whicli 
Kron has thought worthy of preservation. — The Epoch, A'. ]'. 

The tourist through any of the 850 tokens recorded as supporting "Ten Thoii- 
Siind Miles on a Bicycle " may be profited by knowing the names of those support- 
ers, as the most probable possessors of knowledge about local roads and routes. 

The directory of over 3000 subscribing wheelmen is alone worth more 
than the price of the whole book. — Caf^e Ann Breeze, Gloucester, Mass. (Di- 
rectory mailed in sheets for 25 c.) 

IIo7ij much does cycling cost ? See index to prices and expenditures in "Ten 
Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." 

In spite of the irrelevancy of much that finds a place between the covers, 
there is no doubt a good deal of information about bicycle clubs, the rules 
which must be observed by wheelmen who travel in different countries, and 
the like, that owners and riders of bicycles cannot but find useful. — Boston 
Post. 

For most complete account of the first tour ez'er anyxvJiere taken by a large 
party of wheelmen [a week's experience of three dozen " in the Down East fogs "/ 
21 pages, price 2icentr). s^e "Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." 

It gives all the author's experiences, all his opinions, all his observations 
on all subjects, and all the facts about how to ride, when to ride, where to 
ride, who riders are in all parts of the country, where they live, and — well, 
the book is as comprehensive as a file of newspapers. — Baltimore American. 

" There is too much fine type," it has been said. Let us see about this. 
Here are 173 pages of indexes, etc., which surely ought to be in fine type, leav- 
''ig 373 pages in coarse and 362 pages (less than half of the entire reading 
matter) in fine type. Thus we have more coarse type alone than the publisher 
promised to give us in all ; and it would seem that we might accept the fine 
print, especially as it is given free gratis. — Wheelmen's Record, Indianapolis. 

U2 



NOT SIMPLY A PERSONAL NARRATIVE. 

Two-thirds the text of " Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle "' (as demonstrated 
on p. XX.) is devoted to matters entirely distinct from the author" s own ivheeling ex- 
periences. The index of about 200 contributors of records coi'ers nearly a page of 
fine type (/>. Ixxi.) and is reprinted elstnuhere in this t'amplilet. 

The queerest book that has come into this office for a long while. The 
writer is a bicycle rider. He has it worse than an\- one else on record, and 
his book is in the main an account of how far he rode, where he took a header, 
when he dismounted for lunch, what roads are stony, how much distance can 
be covered in an hour, what he did after i h. 13 m., etc. ; but there are sev- 
eral readable chapters, and the book has literary merit of rare qualitv, in 
spots. — Hartfo7-d Courant. 

For Thotnas Stez'ens's route from Sail Francisco to Boston, ivith daily mile- 
age [not given in his book), see ''^Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." 

It is not an account of travels on the wheel, like Stevens's noted book. 
Each chapter deals with some American bicycle route or gives wheel infor- 
mation. It is a book for every wheelman's possession. — Worcester Spy. 

For a great variety of contributions from Australians and A''ni< Zealandcrs 
(i\ ,00a 7t<ords on long-distance tours, road-races, all-day runs ami annual mileage 
statistics), see "Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." 

A cyclopaedia of bicycle tours (with advice and descriptions of roads), 
bicycle literature, index of clubs, and general miscellaneous information on 
the subject of bicycling. — Baltimore Sun. 

For 2,000-mile route of H. J. High, from Pennsylvania to Nebraska and back,, 
with daily reports ofiivatherand mileage, see " Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." 

Containing an immense store of information, it is in fact a perfect encv- 
clopaedia of wheeling. — Buffalo Courier. 

For reports of winter touring, in three States, oz'cr the sncKO and ice, see " Te// 
Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." 

It presents a mass of detail, which must have been accumulated with 
great labor, and which will doubtless be of use and advantage to the bicycler. 
— IVashington Post. 

/>w« Detroit to Alontrcal : dcnvit the St. Lawrence to Quebec and beyond. 
See Canadian tourists'' records in " Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." 

An invaluable book for the wheelman. In reality, a dictionary for tour- 
ists on the bicycle. It contains extended and minute information as to prices, 
hotels, roads, scenery, literature of the wheel, long-distance rides, — everything 
that the cyclist could want to know, much of it the result of patient research. 
— Buffalo Express. 

For reports of tricycle touring by young ladies in .Australia, read "Ten Thous. 
Miles on a Bicycle." Its " index of women " exhibits tnore than 100 references. 

A volume which all bicyclers should have, and which most of them do 
have. — Baltimore American. 

The book is a good book, well worth the money. There is no English- 
man who has had it and not pronounced it really good value. — Wheeling. 

Z2 



••-/ FREE ADVr OF O'CLEVG IN GENERAL. 

As explained on pp. 702, 714, the Publisher has exelnded all advertisements 
front ilie book, in order to make it sei-oe most effectively as a free advertisement of 
eycling in general. Those of his copttrtncrs who appreciate the neat typography 
thus secured (at a sacrifee of the " trade "feature 7ohich all other evcling prints 
rely upon as a sole pecuniary support), are invited to pay for it by helping push 
the circulation of ^^ Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle " rouud the -vorld. 
> There has been no end of sport niaclc of Karl Kron and his wonderful 

book, but, at heart, every wheelman cannot but feel grateful to the author of 
a book which will prove of such great value to cycling. — Boston Globe. 

As an insight into American cycling, and as a guide to a large portion 
of the great continent, the volume is very valuable. A vast deal of valuable 
and also of useless statistics are given, and the book is interesting for its own 
sake. — Irish Cyclist <2r= Athlete, Duldin. 

Ho7u about cyclometers ? No p?-evious collection of experiences with them is 
comparable in extent to that contained in " Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle.^'' 

Ai)art from much irrelevancy, the book contains very serviceable informa- 
tion for those interested in bicycle travel. The ten thousand miles e.xtended 
ii\ various directions, a:'nd principally in the United States and Canada. 
There are valuable details given as to the conditions of roads, obstruc- 
tions, accommodations, charges and the facilities for ordinary travel when the 
locality was unfit for further progress on the bicycle. — Alta California, San 
P'raticisco. 

For "Clerical ivheelmen^s Canadian tour," and riding-reports from individual 
clergymeti, see " Ten Thousand A/iles on a Bicycle.'''' 

IJke the Coast Guide to the yachtsman, this manual will prove indispen- 
sable to the wheelman. Within its covers are contained the minutest de- 
scriptions of some 6000 miles of highways in the United States, Canada 
and Bermuda which the author has explored with the definite purpose of 
jniblishing his observations; reports upon about 6000 additional miles of 
rcKid traversed by others ; a mass of statistics regarding distances, persons 
antl places, and a multiplicity of other details useful to travelers. It is most 
valuable to the active bicycler, who has time and taste for riding long dis- 
tances ujion the road. — Boston Advertiser. 

J I 'inter wheeling in that "ocean paradise," Bermuda. See "Ten Thousand 
Miles on a Bicycle " ; and, if you take the voyage, procure for pocket use the sheets 
of the Bermuda chapter (postpaid for 25 cents). 

As a cyclopjedia of places and library book of reference, this volume 
stands unique in literature and is unsurpassed in its line. It is redolent with 
the fresh breeze of the prairie and the ocean, of the city pavement smells, 
and the onion-laden air of the "still ve.xed " Bermudas. — McGregor Aleias, la. 

For list of "League railroads " carrying passengers'' bicycles free as personal 
baggage, in U. S. and Canada, see "Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle.'''' 

Well written and thoroughly practical, it must be of great value to all 
wheeling tourists. — Canadian JVheelman. 

X2 



CC/STOMS DUTIES AND TRAiYSPORTATIOA'. 

For custom-house ritfes as to duties on cycles, in United States, Canada, Mex- 
ico, Bermuda, France, Italy, Switzerland, Belgimn, Holland and Germany, see 
''^I'cn Tliousand Allies on a Bicycle." 

Bicyclists will find in this volume worlds of new thought and a familiarity 
with our great country that will impart to any reader an air of traveled leis- 
ure, such as is not often attainable even from personal experience. — McGregor 
A'eivs, la. 

Tourists going- abroad, who wis/i to liave their cycles classed as baggage on the 
ocean passage, and who tvish to ktiow the transportation rules and rates of the 
British and continental railroad and steamboat lines, should consult " Ten Thou- 
sand Miles on a Bicycle." 

The author, with pardonable pride, calls the book " a gazetteer, a diction- 
ary, a cyclopaedia, a statistical guide, a thesaurus of facts." It gives a record 
of his journeys over the United States, describes the scenery, the condition 
of the roads, etc., in every locality, and furnishes other details which should 
make the book invaluable to all who follow in his footsteps, or wheel-tracks. 
— Lippincotfs Magazine, Philadelphia. 

For autobiographies of the pioneer 'wheelmen and long-distance tourists of the 
United States, see "Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." 

There may be some things of possible interest to devotees of the wheel 
omitted from this book; but if so, we have been unable to discover the omis- 
sion. — The Critic, xV. Y. 

For long-distance tours by Frenchmen and Germans, and by Englishmen in 
France and Germany as well as Great Britain, see " Ten Thous. Miles on a Bi." 

A compendium of information about routes and roads in the Eastern 
States, Canada and Bermuda, accompanied by wheelmen's scores and various 
topics of interest to bicyclers. A large amount of money has been spent in 
its preparation. — Cincinnati Comtnercial Gazette. 

For records of ladies^ tricycling, in America, England and Australia, read 
"Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." Of lOO references in its "index of women," 
fully one-fourth refer to this subject. 

A voluminous " thesaurus of facts" which every bicycler will find ex- 
tremely useful. — IVorcester Spy. 

The main purpose of the book is to present minute descriptions of about 
6000 miles of American highways which the author has explored while driving 
his wheel the distance named in the title, through 24 separate States and 
Provinces. — Outing, N. V. 

For information and advice about securing free transportation of passengers^ 
bicycles, as personal baggage, on American and foreign steamship lines, see " Ten 
7'housand Miles on a Bicycle." 

The modern world, as seen through the eyes of such a Bayard Taylor of 
the wheel, has, to say the least, a novel interest that cannot be experienced 
in any other way. — McGregor Xe-ii's, la. 

It should certainly find a large circle of readers. — St. Louis Spectator. 

A} 



NATURAL HISTORY OF ''THE HOOr 

"Porcus Americaniis^^ or Great American Road-Hog. First designated as 
such in the introductory essay (1882) of '■'Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." 
See index for description of and legal checks upon the Hog. 

A book which will appeal to the large and growing class interested in 
bicycling. It represents an enormous amount of careful work, for no one 
init an enthusiast would spend four years, even of his leisure time, in the 
gathering of materials and the writing of such a work as this. — San Francisco 
Ch roniclc. 

A veritable cycling encyclopaedia, including more, and more diverse, in- 
formation than was ever before crowded into one book. The author is an 
eccentric genius, and every one of these 800 pages shows traces of his pecul- 
iar methods and ideas. It is the best two dollars' worth ever offered to 
cvclists, and no wheelman can afford to be without a copy. Not the least 
curious feature of this remarkable book is the fact that, although named 
" 10,000 Miles on a Bicycle," and apparently appealing only to bicyclists, // is 
rcallv of especial value to all horsemen zoho drive for pleasure. Its authentic 
and detailed information concerning the roads of the United States and 
Canada, is such as cannot be found elsewhere, and renders it a necessity for 
all who make pleasure tours on wheels or horseback. — Spirit of the Times. 

For Yosemite Valley tour and other notable explorations l>y riders in Cali- 
fornia, see "Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." 

The lesson of the book is that, even in this land of bad roads, the bicycle 
is a practical means of long-distance locomotion. — Commercial Advertiser, IV.Y., 

Canal paths and railroads as touring tracks for the cycler. See adventures 
and accidents in "Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." 

The book is a regular dictionary of roads, well indexed, and admirers of 
outdoor sports will take kindly to it. — Xero Orleans Picayune. 

" Land's End to fohn 0' Groat's" — tlie long-distance route from the soicth- 
-west to the north-east corner of Great Britain. For complete list of tours, '73 to 
■'S6, read "Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." 

It is certainly worth reading by any wheelman who cares to inform him- 
self as to the early days of the great and growing pastime, as well as to re- 
fresh his memory concerning events of more recent occurrence. — St. Louis 
Spectator. 

For official definitions of "amateurism " l>y L. A. IV., A. C. U., C. T. C. 
a>id iV. C. U., see "Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." 

Well written and thoroughly practical, it must be of great value to all 
wheeling tourists. — Canadian Wheelman. 

The much-neglected preface and index of a book are of more use to the 
reader than is generally supposed. Some of our great geniuses are e.xpert in 
the art of inde.x-reading. We venerate the inventor of the index. We often 
learn the character of a work through these sources. Read both preface and 
index, as the light thus obtained will help regulate your course as to the 
amount of time to be devoted to the book. — Magazine of .American History. 



TIPS- FROM THE CVCLIXG SCRIBES. 

Kron has done a vast amount of good for the cause of cycling, as any- 
body can see by glancing through his volume. Its bright thoughts, witty 
anecdotes, valuable statistics, biographical sketches, and historical data in- 
sure his book the appreciation it deserves from all who buy and read it. 
How many will l^uy and read it.'' is now the question. If the desired 30,000 
purchasers could be brought to a proper knowledge of what they were going 
to get for their money, they would surely respond far quicker than he could 
turn out the books. That Kron's great enterprise has cost him a vast amount 
of work is conspicuously apparent ; that the proposed sale of 30,000 copies 
will involve a great deal more, he readily comprehends. Will he succeed? 
Yes, beyond a doubt. — Thoinas Stez'cns, in The Wheel. 

Karl Kron's book is floating around here, and it is curious to hear the 
different e.xpressions of opinion respecting it. Some people express unquali- 
fied satisfaction with it, others extreme disgust at receiving what they cor.- 
sider a conglomeration of facts of little interest to them, or, as they think, to 
anyone else. A verdict pitched middle way between the two extremes would 
convey perhaps about a fair estimate of the value of the work : it cannot be al- 
together praised, nor can it be wholly condemned. — Philadelpliia eor. [''Chris ") 
of Wheelmen'' s Gazette. 

The book is an ornament to any man's library and I shall always esteem 
it a valuable acquisition to mine. Those who have been jeering at poor okl 
Karl, for the last couple of years, now wish they had sent on their names, and 
had them printed with the 3000. — Kentucky eor. (" Xorb ") of The Wheel. 

The American Athlete is pretty hard on the inspired Kron, whose book is 
worth the two beans asked for it to any wheelman, — if only to show the 
amount of gall (which is, to quote the Athlete, " prodigious") that Kron dis- 
plays so freely. — Chicago cor. (" Geis ") of Wheelmen^ Record. 

Karl Kron has been a great traveler on the bicycle, and his book is full 
of that kind of information sought for by the wheelman: It has had such an 
extensive sale among wheelmen in advance, that those who contemplate using 
it as a gift book should inquire first whether the intended recipient has a 
copy. — Philadelphia Ledger. 

We republish below, in full, as a representative English estimate, M'heel- 
tiig's critical review of Karl Kron's work. We find ourselves in hearty accortl 
with every assertion in this most polished critique, and we hope its perusal 
may place the work in a new light, to those who have regarded it as an in- 
tangible curiosity, a mere trash basket of accepted and long discovered bicyc- 
ular facts and fancies. — The IVheel, IV. V. 

The chapter of " Statistics from the Veterans " is really very interesting, 
and we can only regret that it is not more complete ; but that is not K. K.'s 
fault. — Bicycling World, Boston. Such writing for the "Veterans" seems 
over-ripe. Since the inception of the volume and its completion a new gen- 
eration, as it were, of cyclists has sprung up, for whom these ' tales of a 
grandfather " have but little interest. — Philadelphia cor. of American Athlete. 



COMPLIMENTS FOR " CURLP 

We have here a i)onderous volume of 800 closely-printed pages, dedi- 
-cated to the mciiiury of a bull-dog, and containing a biography of the dog, 
done in the style of a sincere mourner with Bosvvellian proclivities, and de- 
tailing the observations of the author and mourner as he was whirled along 
the highways and by-ways of half a continent, astride of a bicycle, until he 
had completed a mile for every supposititious Greek in the flying band led by 
the immq^-tal Xenophon. The work, as briefly described by the author, is 
"A Gazetteer of American Roads in Many States," and "An EncycloiJasdia of 
Wheeling Progress in Many Countries," with twenty personal and general 
indexes ; and although the picture of the dog, as he looks with canine 
benignity toward the title page, incliired us to accept the cha]5ter of biography 
cum ,^raiio, yet the author assures in his dedicatory lines that " Curl " was 
" the very best dog whose presence ever blessed this planet." We commend 
this volume as a curiosity, and trust the ingenious author may have at least 
one reader for everv mile he traveled on his wheel, and for every tear he shed 
lor his dog. — Public Opinion, Washington. 

My wife asked me why in the world I bought a book dedicated to a bull- 
dog.'' I could not tell her why, but it is a big affair and well worth the $2. 
The 6'h and 7th chapters (pp. 35-63) are of particular interest to me.— y. J., 
S.ilt Lake City, Utah. 

I think it is a book which every wheelman, who wants to be informed 
about what has been done, should read. As lam of a statistical turn of mind, 
perhaps I appreciated it more than the average man. Anyway, I found a great 
deal of good reading in it, and I like the book. I did n't see just what a bull- 
dog's storv had to do in a wheeling book, but nevertheless I read it and liked 
it much for the fun it contained. I have no doubt that had " Curl " lived to 
see vou on a wheel, he would have made you wish you had an iron boot. — 
C. C. McA'., Akron, O. 

We are all i^utting in our spare time here in reading Karl Kron's book. 
Some like it, and some don't. With my canine taste, the chapter on the bull- 
dog " Curl " goes right to the spot. As a piece of literary work it is very far 
superior to anything else in the book, and I will take off my hat to the man 
who wrote it should I ever meet him. — Phila. cor. [^'Cal Wallace ") Am. Athlete. 

I think it very valuable, — in fact, a wonderful book in many respects. I 
was much interested in the story of Curl's life, among other things. — ]\'. H. 
E., Witiona, Minn. 

The book is as it should be now, and you could not have improved it by 
any omissions or additions. No true lover of the dog can read " Curl's " story 
and its finale with dry eves. In the name of the cyclists of the East, let me 
thank you for your noble work. — G. O. IL, Bangor, Me. 

Wonderfully cheap at $2. There is not a chapter in the book which is 
not worth, alone, more than the price of the volume. — Star Aih'ocaie. 

So cheap that we are afraid the pu^Dlisher will die as poor as the poor 
dog to whose name it was dedicated. — L. A. ]V. Pointer, Oshkosh, Wis. 

C4 



FROM A FEMIXIXE FOIXT OF \1F\V. 

From a feminine point of view, there is little interest in Mr. Karl Kron's 
book. I say this without regard to the other interests, for I am inclined to 
believe that he has covered everything else with painful detail, but the little 
army of lady riders has been passed over without so much as an acknowledg- 
ment of its existence. He can write scores of pages on a savage bull-dor^,, 
and more upon the history of a lodging-house in New York, but he has no 
word whatever to say regarding the lady riders who have come forw^d as dev- 
otees of the sport and made themselves an important factor in it. In such a 
mass of matter, there was no room for us. It was to be expected. Karl Kron 
is a bachelor. — Boston cor. {"■ Daisie'') of L. A. IV. Bulletin. 

Ah, " Uaisie " ! how could you be so careless.' If you will but turn to the 
final page of my seventy-five page index, you will find I have there devoted 
more than a solid column of fine type to a special alphabet of " women," — a 
catalogue of nearly one hundred references where my monster volume makes 
mentiou of your own sweet sex. The " lady tricyclers " alone claim a dozen 
references, and the "wives of wheelmen" about as many more. After the 
great paiftstaking given to this special index, to have you declare that my 
book " has no word whatever to say regarding the lady riders," does seem, in- 
deed, the " most unkindest cut of all ! " Must I suggest, also, that vou are 
cruelly inaccurate in saying I have written "scores of pages on a savage bull- 
dog".'' Nineteen pages are not "scotes," and Curl was never savage. In- 
deed, the sole literary object of the volume is to justify his memory in historv 
as the most tender-hearted specimen of his race, as having always " roared 
' you as gently as a sucking dove." So, please don't condemn Curl until vou 
have formed his acquaintance, and don't assum.e that his character mav not 
be voted charming, even "from a feminine point of view." Let me confess, 
too, that it was a woman's praise (given long ago, in the days when we both 
were young) of my verbal reminiscences about Curl, which finally led me to 
conceive the notion of writing his biography, and so led to the production of 
the monumental tome which his portrait adorns. Since lively modern girls 
of sixteen and eighteen and twenty have all, more recently, laughed their ap- 
proval to me of the actual biography, I may surely be pardoned for hoping 
that " the little army of tricyclers " contains many who will also be able to 
find some fun in it. My own personal chance for favor among them may 
have everlastingly gone by, but I want to have Curl be given a fair show for 
becoming "a pet of the ladies." As for my sketch of "Castle Solitude," I 
am certain that, among an equal number of men and women, who might have 
the patience to peruse it, more of the latter would be interested than the 
former. Curiosity in studying the secret and forbidden phases of life is not 
the exclusive attribute of either sex; but, as regards the peculiarities of the 
queerest lodging-house that ever existed on this planet, there can be no doubt 
of their making the stronger appeal to the imagination of that half of human- 
ity whose interests are chiefly domestic, because taken " from a feminine 
point of view." — Karl Kron, /;/ L. A. IF. Bulletin. 

B4 



THE RETORT COURTEOUS. 

A " nasty horrid girl "' is cruel enough to suggest that " Daisie " gruni- 
liled at Karl Kron's "slight "' to the ladies in his book, because the principal 
and almost only feats of lady riders recorded therein were credited to Jersev 
women. I, of course, would not venture to uphold her in her spiteful jeal- 
ousy. — New Jersey cor. {"/er. C") of L. A. IV. Bulletin. 

The Boston Herald, Fall Mall Gazette, and many leading papers condemn 
Karl Kron's book in most emphatic terms. " Daisie " also thinks there is 
little in it to interest any one. She is level-headed this time sure. — Tlie Bi- 
cycle, West Rutland, Vt. {pub. by a Chief Consul of L. A. IV., at J 2 cents a rear.) 

A Yankee of the Yankees, he makes no false or undue pretensions of 

anv kind,. . . .but is . . .a genial and kindly philosopher, as honest as he is 

shrewd. — 7'''iC Saturday Kez'iew, London. 

He has prepared a book which is not only interesting and entertaining, 
but which is invaluable both to the wheelman and the general traveler. — Cir- 
roll Democrat, Westminster, Md. 

It is certainly a complete thing, and should be in the library of everv 
wheelman. I send you the full price ($2), instead of the $1.20 which vou 
request of me as a subscriber; for the work is worth double the regular price. 
The more I read, the better I like it, and I shall be glad to be of some serv- 
ice to you in return. — 7! M. B., South Pittsburg; Tenn. 

I read your book on my journey from Kansas to California, and can verv 
truthfully say that it is more than I e.xpected could be written on wheeling, 
although I had my expectations sufficiently e.xalted. — L.J. B., Emporia, I\'au. 

It is a marvel ; and the subscriber who is dissatisfied should be iniblished. 
My little e.xperience in the making of bicycle road-books onlv enables me to ap- 
preciate better the splendid success vou have achieved. — //. B. Donlv, Secre- 
tary of Canadian Wheelmen'' s .4ssociation, Simcoe, 0/tt. 

While much of your book is not to my liking, in point of personal in- 
terest, it is certainly a most marvelous monument of your perseverance. — 
J. S. Dean, Boston. I read it " in snatches " and, whil« there may have been 
objections, was highly pleased with it. The style is charming, and the knowl- 
edge you display of human nature and certain accepted facts (that is, what I 
think they call introspective philosophy) secured at once my admiration. — /'. 
F. Prial, editor of The Wheel, Ne-w York. 

I think it has been got up in excellent shape, and there's lots of good stuff 
in it. What a pile of work you have put in that book ! I hope you '11 get your 
money back, and much more, too ; but you 've got a big task before you, sure. 
The quality is unquestionably caviare to the multitude. Still, as you argue, 
having done so well with the 3000, the capture of ten times as many may not 
prove imijossible. — H. F. Fellozus, author of " Boating Trips on N'e^o England 
Rivers " (Boston : Cupples, Upham 6^ Co., 1884). 

The more I read, the better I like it. It is a most valuable book. Put 
my name down for " 2 X. .M." — E. H. Corson, author of the " Star Rider's 
Manual " and editor of the Star Adzvcate, East Rochester, Af. H. 

U 



I'HE J'EJ^SOXAL EQC'AT/OX. 

It ought to have been called " 'I'en Thousand Fs and My's." In spite of 
your editorial, last week, I am one cycler who can tind very little that is use- 
lul or entertaining in it, and that little is so completely buried in literary rub- 
bish and fine print, that it is not worth while to try and find it. Stevens's 
"Around the World on a Bicycle" is worth a dozen of it. — C/tfchiiiii cor. 
("//o/y/iv") of Wlicdmcirs Rcconl. 

I have read a number of criticisms both \)Xo and con on Karl Kron's 
book, and I feel inclined to congratulate him on their tenor. The adverse 
ones are marked for the most part with an unmistakable dent of malicious- 
ness, and the claims made are either gross misrepresentations or near enough 
so to be what Chicago people call rank lies. It is true that the identity of 
the author is apparent all through the work, and equally true that many of 
the greatest literary efforts of our time have been written from a personal 
standpoint. It is true, too, that the author is eccentric to a degree, as is 
shown by the careful manner in which he guards his real name. And one 
might (should he choose, and know the gentleman) sav a great many other 
things there is no particular occasion to cite. But that the book is just what 
it is represented to be as a gazetteer, cannot be denied by anvbody who takes 
the trouble to carefully glance over it; and it is, I think, in the opinion of the 
majority of these, the most important work'exclusively cycling hitherto pub- 
lish. 1. — CA'/Ltiiiv cor. (" /^>;-(7.v ") of IVheelmcii's Gaze'te. 

It has become the affected fashion, I know, to give vent to chestnut sar- 
casm at the expense of my friend Karl Kron's '• X. M." book, on the ground 
of its antiquity. All I have to say is, Let those read, who laugh. I picked 
up the book on my return home, the other evening, and began glancing over 
its encyclopasdic contents. I found them anything but dry reading, and soon 
became deeply absorbed, as I went along, skipping from page to page, in 
every one of which 1 found something that caught my eye and well repaid me 
for my trouble in reading. As an evidence of my sincerity, le.t me say that I 
found so much to engage my attention that it was long after midnight before 
I thought of the lateness of the hour and laid it down. Now for the i^ast 
three years I guess I have kept myself as far " up " in cycling literature as 
the next fellow, yet I must own that at no time was the realization forced on 
me that I was wandering in a chestnut orchard. I found plenty of Karl Kron, 
to be sure, and whv not .' Does he pretend to create a work with anv other 
foundation than his own experiences.' And then again I must own that I 
have never found anvthing about Karl Kron personally or in his writings 
that was disagreeable or a bore. I anticipate passing many pleasant half 
hours in the perusal of " X. M.," and the valuable statistics that it contaiift 
will make it a volume of frequent reference by me. I shall be most happy to 
enroll myself as a subscriber to " X. M., No. 2," and consider myself running 
in rare luck to be able to get so much value for my money. — Elizabeth cor. 
X'Jonah ") of The Wheel. 

A beautiful portrait of his bull-dog forms the frontispiece. — X. Y. World. 

A4 



SHORT COTS FROM SUBSCRIBERS. 

My admiration for the book is uiiboundetl, and I vvisii yuu tlie greatest 
of success. — L. L. P., Salem, Oregon. Vour big book is a veritable bonanza 
to wheelmen. — G J. T., Salt Lake City, Utah. I am extremely pleased with 
it. — \V. T. IV., ia/itn; Ct. A valuable addition to my library. — £. J. A', 
Birtttiiigham, Ct. h. thoroughly good hand-book of the sport. — IV. S. />'., 
Madison, Wis. I think it worth %\o to any man riding a wheel — 0. C, A^., 
IValniit, 111. I am satisfied in every respect. — F. M. IV, SihUy, III. It is 
ever so much more interesting than I had thought it could be. — A'^t'. /'. S. D., 
AlUntinvn, Pa. We are all greatly pleased, and hope you will sell the 30,000. 
—C J I'. S., U'alJai, iV. y. 

I cannot but admire the extreme diligence exhibited in preparing such ai\ 
exhaustive index. — /•'. L. G., Bermuda. I consider it the best book on cycling 
that has ever been published. — L. P., Stanford Rivers, Eng. It is certainly a 
capital book and does you great credit — A. J. L., Birmingham, Eng. I am 
amply repaid for the long wail. The chapter on " Curl " is splendid — H.J. J., 
London, Eng. A masterpiece of compilation, a gem of perseverance and a 
most useful fund of reference. — A. M. B., London, E/tg. Your painstaking is 
beyond all praise. You read as if you were Argus-eyed, and pronounce a 
judgment worthy of Solon. All hail to your Pen, dear K. K. ! Long may 
you live ! May your books ever grow bigger and bigger : better they cannot 
hQ.—J. B. M , London, Eng. 

The circulation already given to the book in the Brooklyn Library, shows 
that it is and will be popular. — W. A. D., Acting Librarian. 

It is indeed a wonderful book, far exceeding my e.xpectations, and I 
cannot help thinking it must be highly typical of its author. I do not believe 
another Karl Kron exists, and therefore the book must ever be unique in the 
literature of cycling.— Z>r. /. H. M., Westerly, R. I. 

The reading of your accounts of tours at once arouses in me an ambition 
to go and do likewise. Though your type is necessarily fine, my eyes have 
not suffered. — L. B. G., Minneapolis. 

I have examined it sufiiciently to be assured that it is a treasure, — not only 
full of information, but full of entertainment, — a book that can be read everv 
d.iy with no loss of interest. — T. B. S., Millville, A". J. 

I am very well pleased indeed with it, though just a little bit disappointed 
that you did n't say anything about our splendid ocean beach. But of course 
you could n't get everything in, or you never would have finished. — W. J. F.. 
Fernandina, Fla. 

^ . I am not able to write it up, as I feel like doing, but I am awfully pleased 
with it. It is the cheapest book I ever bought. It reads more like a person 
talking to you than anything I ever read. — B. L., Lafayette, Ind. 

I hope that every subscriber will succeed in selling every extra copy sent 
him, in order that you may be partly rewarded for your long and arduous work 
in preparing so good and exhaustive a book. Enclosed please find $4 for the 
two which you asked me to sell. — Rez\ E. P. J., WoodUnvn Park, III. 

F4 



A FIRM HOLD OX THE Fi'TURE. 

I don't want to '"give you taffy." hut, really, it is a splendid woilc.and one 
which will grow. It "s a little too deep for tirst reading, perhaps, but it will con- 
tinue to be looked into, years from now. The print is all right. Of course 
it is fine, but the book is not a novel, but a work of reference, a staple guide. 
If people criticise the print, let them remember that the touring and bicvcling 
majority is composed of fellows whose eyesight is unimpaired. Tell such 
complainants to go to! — B. B. Avers, Chicago, First Tourmaster, L. A. IT. 

I have no doubt that all your subscribers will be glad thev have waited 
for the complete l:)ook, instead of receiving a half-way affair. The non-cycling 
chapters are a pleasant relief, and should " wire on " a good many outsiders. 
I should say that " Castle Solitude "' was one of your best chapters. Vour 
plan of confiding personal matters to your "copartners" can hardlv fail to 
enlist their sympathy, — I even hope to the extent -of winning your fabulous 
number of 30,000. Personally, that book just suits me, and you mav put 
down my pledge for " 2 X. M.'*— ^. A. J/., OZ/io. 

As a work of reference it is invaluable, and if its price were five times as 
great. I would not like to be without it. I do not doubt that it will be more 
appreciated fifty years hence than it is to-day ; but I hardly believe it can ever 
be made a tinancial success. I have heard many wheelmen speak of you as a 
" crank," and I must say you must be either very wealtiiy or very eccentric, 
to waste so many years on a labor which I fear will never be fullv appreciated, 
and which certainly can never bring either the honor or emoluments which 
would have been derived if such labor had been applied in some other direc- 
tions.— i". J/. F, Xc'i' Orleans, La. 

Of the three e.xtraneous chapters (27, 2S. 29). I think I like "Castle Soli- 
tude '■ the best, especially the first part. This matter, which has as little to 
do with cycling as the average " cycling romance," is very interesting to me ; 
both by reason of what I hope you will excuse me for calling the audacity of 
your egotism, and by reason of the original way you have — not of looking at 
things, perhaps, but of telling us honestly just how you do look at them. 
What you show here of your personality makes me think you'll not mind the 
inevitable penalty : that the very quaintness which is the charm will be the 
reason why all the "every day young men" will dub you a " crank." — E.J.S.. 
i\>7£' York Bicycle Club. 

I consider it an indispensable cycling gazetteer, showing a marvelous 
exhiJ)ition of patience and attention to detail. I do not mean that the book 
is perfection. Perhaps at first glance it may prove disappointing, — may seem 
too bulky and not practical enough. But the more one looks into it, the more 
does its value increase, and I would not part with my copy for considerably 
many times its price. I think those who have to deal with cycling topics 
will bear me out in this statement. In fact, the book occupies a unique posi- 
tion, as being the first, and a highly creditable attempt, at a cycling cyclo- 
pjedia. — //. P. Merrill, Los A»i;cles, Cal., formerly editor of the cyclinsc and liter- 
ary columns of SpringJJeld Union. 

E4 



ST. PETERSBURG'S RESPONSE TO OREGON. 

No velocipedist worthy of tbc name cau fail to make liimself familiar 
with this- guide for the perfect Vwy clar.— Journal de St. Prtemhourg. 

We have read this elegaut book, and pronounce it worth $10 instead 
of f 3. It is the greatest authority ever published on cycling, and gives a 
description of every ridable road in the United ^XkIq^.— Oregon SifUags. 

Karl Kron's greatest need is an editor armed with a rackful of the 
biggest blue pencils. — The Epoch, N. Y. 

It is, without a doubt, the mo.st comprehensive work yet issued in 
the cycling world ; and, considering the information contained therein, 
the price charged is only nominal. — AuatraUan Cycling Ntirti. 

It contains a mass of information likely to be useful to cyclists in 
America, and one or two general essays which are interestmg, and its 
ample indexes give it value as a book of reference. — The I'imes, London, 

The printing is characterised by the excellence and clearness of type 
which distinguishes the best American productions; the indices are mar- 
vels of completeness, and the literary merit is considerable. Indeed, the 
production is in striking contrast to the majority of English literature of 
a similar class, most of which is contemptible, and designed solely as 
pegs whereon to hang advertisements. The chapter on "British and Colon- 
ial Records" deals with road riding and touring, and we find here many 
interesting accounts of English bicyclists who have covered enormous 
distances in their time. Tiie author appears to revel in statistics of 
bicycling in this country, and does not shirk the labor their compilation 
demands. — T7ie Field, London. 

I think your book will " live." I enjoy it more and more. — //. C, 
Glttftgoip, Scotland. 1 have read your book over and over again, and its 
pages always seem to gleam forth full of interest. — R. E. B., York, E)ig. 
I enjoy the reading of it immensely. — C. H. S..Harrisburg, Pa. 

As regards your long and wonderful book, I nave as yet done little 
more than roam about it, like a butterfly in a flower-garden, but I have 
found that I want '• Curl" separately, for a friend who is a lover of bull- 
dogs, and sol enclose the price of that chapter. — A. II., Ijondon, Eng. 

Mr. Kron, who graduated at Yale in 1809, where he was the author 
of that lively work known as "Four Years at Yale," is not named 
"Kron" at all. Everybody knows wluit his name is, but he says he 
hates and despises those who will review his books, and he asks them as 
a favor to let his real name alone. Thus courteously approached, what 
else can we do but comply with his request ? His " Ten Thousand Miles 
on a Bicycle " is the queerest book that has come into this office for a long 
while. — Hartford Courant. 

Connaissez-vous M. Kron? M. Kron de New York? Karl Kron, 
I'auteur de " Quatre ans a Yale?" Vous ne rt^pondez pas; avouez que 
vous avez honte de confesser votre ignorance. — Parian reviewer {"M. R,") 
in Journal de St. Petershourg , Feb. 24^ March 7, 1888. 

y4 



THE HUMORS OF COl'EXTRY. 

The next picture was thrown upon the screen, exciting universal anuise- 
ment, not unmixed with derision. It represented a small man clad in a very 
dirty and oily corduroy coat, and a still dirtier pair of white flannel pants, 
heavily-darned stockings, and badly-patched shoes, all the items of his cos- 
tume being labeled in the most peculiar manner. Thus, his stockings were 
labeled " My Go-its stockings," with details as to price, date of purchase, 
and number of miles that the diminutive man had ridden in them, whilst each 
darn or patch in his other garments was similarly labeled with date and cost. 
The lecturer said, in introducing this picture : This, ladies and gentlemen, is 
a Transatlantic study. The portrait thrown upon the sheet is that of a great 
author — in his own estimation. He produced that matchless work, in nine 
volumes, of 500 pages each, entitled " XVII. Miles on a Bicycle," and is now 
at work upon another monumental labor, the outcome of a visit to England, 
called " From Ditton to Ripley on a Cycle." In dealing with this novel sub- 
ject the author under notice has followed out the wonderfully clear, concise, 
and unencumbered style which distinguished all his previous works. As, 
however, he is present, I will ask Mr. Edwin George Oliver Tist to speak for 
himself. A little man, the counterpart of the illustration, hastily scrambled 
on the platform and pushed the lecturer aside, leaving several conspicuous 
dabs of oil on the latter's dress-suit, and humming under his breath : 

" Whatever I try, sir, I fail in, and why, sir? I'm diffident, modest, and shy," 

with a dim recollection of the air from " Kuddigore," he addressed the audi- 
ence as follows: Ehem ! wall! You must regard me as an- average man — a 
representative average man, of course — ^rather in front of the rest, you know, 
but — ehem ! My name is — wall ? — Introduction to heavy British funny business 
in '•''The Lantern" illustrated Christmas annual of "the Coventry rinn" 

The author's motto, " My motives pure; my satire free from gall," is too 
delicious when compai^ with the te.xt. A far more appropriate motto would 
be, " My motives mercenary, my gall free from satire " ; for on the very page 
ihat faces the motto I find it distinctly stated that " praise is not sought for, 
but money," and " I do it to make money." The only paragraphs containing 
what the author is pleased to call satire are the allusions to our C. T. C. ; and 
any unprejudiced reader will agree that the gall supersedes the satire. Truly, 
if this book can " make mone}%" no author need have fears concerning his 
income. — Anonymous cor. (" 1432") of C. T. C. Gazette, whose editor confcssea 
in the witness box of a London law court [before Air. Justice Wills, Nov. 22, 
1886; seefa^i^e xci) that he had used it as a tnedium for forgery ; and ivho ivas 
thereupon dismissed by the indignant fudge, with a scathing reprimand for hav- 
ing " indulged in the lowest and vulga rest abuse of the worst form of journalism. '' 

There is many a noble thought nobly e.\pressed in this book, with its 
bold originality of style, and daring impudence of advertisement and egotism. 
To the wheelmen of the world it apjjeals, its interests being in no way 
circumscribed by the limits of the American Continent. — Wheeling, London. 

1)4 



LONDON ECHOES AT MELBOURNE. 

Karl Kron's opening essay, " On the Wheel," is written iu a happy 
vein, and wiU not fail to claim the attention of all practical riders; the 
accounts of his own tours prove him to be a by no means unobservant 
traveler; while the memoir of his favorite bull dog, although in no way 
connected with his subject, aflTords such interesting reading tliat few 
will be found to regret its interpolation. It is refreshing thus to come 
across a book ou bicycling in which the author exhibits both the ability 
to write sense and an evident ambition to give the world something of 
value; for few. if any, of our books in Euglaud dealing with the subject 
can claim an equal literary merit. — llie Field, Ijonclon. 

Having ourselves devoted considerable space and attention from time 
to time to Karl Kron's American road-book, — without doubt the most 
gigantic publication that has ever been placed upon the wheel-world 
book market, — we are glad to find that so important a paper as the Field 
deals favorably with it; and we now have pleasure in reproducmg for 
our readers the review contained in this leading organ of sport. — Sewing 
Machine ami Cycle News, Lo?idon. 

Of all tlie many evidences of the kindly feeling of cyclists for one an- 
other, or, in ether words. " the brotherhood of the wheel." we think tiie 
successful publication of Karl Kron's book ranks highest. It brings 
before us, more forcibly than anything else we can record, the existence 
of a sentiment, unknown in almost any other branch of sport, that binds 
the hearts of wheelmen togetlier, the world over. Is this not proved by 
the publication of a book, after four years' hard work of its enterprising 
author, with over 8200 subscribers, solicited free ? Giving as it does 
statistics and personal references to wheelmen in almost every part of our 
habitable globe, we recommend it to all as a veritable " encyclopjedia of 
wheeling progress in many countries." No commission is paid a single 
person for selling it. — Australian Cycling News, Melbourne. 

Australia and New Zealand get full prominence, for the author has 
expended an enormous amount of time and money in making a 
thorough compilation of Australiasian matter. He has an aptness for 
expressing himself in such neat and concise language, that there is no 
necessity for re-reading a sentence to grasp its meaning. So little has 
escaped his observation, that the chief characteristic of his work is its 
comprehensiveness ; but in expression it is positively different from our 
ordinary cycling literature, — the constant tautology with which most 
writers nowada3^s are afflicted being conspicuous by its absence. Tlie 
book, in its way, is a marvel, eclipsing in every particular all other pub- 
lications on the same subject. — Geo. R. Broadbent, in A. (J. News. 

I can endorse what Mr. Broadbent says of it, and feel sure that my 
fellow cyclists, who may have ample reading time during the coming 
winter evenings, will be well repaid for tlieir ontlu}' b}' the unique 
character of the fare provided for the #2. — " The Hub,'" in A. C. N. 

P4 



LWDER THE SOi/THEK.Y CROSS. 

Sandhurst, Australia's "golden city," is situated about loo miles inland 
from Melbourne, the sea-port capital of the colony of Victoria, and boasts 
about a tenth as many inhabitants (350,000), though as late as 1853 it was a 
mere camp of calico-tents in the wild bush, and was then called Bendigo by 
the gold-miners who dwelt in them. No American city of 35,000 population 
has given so many subscribers to my scheme {yj) ; and, in recording this fact, 
on p. 793, as the most curious one of my round-the-world canvass, I remark 
that it was due to the energy of one of the earliest enthusiasts and organizers 
of cycling in that city, W. J. Parry, who has lived there since 1S75, •^^^'^ whose 
residence and address is " Kenfig Villa, Wills st." 

He now offers still further to show his good-will for " the caiise " by 
superintending the distribution and sale of my book throughout the "Island 
Continent." On receipt of 8s. 8d., he will mail a copy to any address in any 
colony of Australia ; he will hand or send specimen pages and circulars gratis 
to any applicant ; and he will forward the book for a month's examination to 
any signer of the " approval blank," elsewhere printed in this pamphlet, who 
may be suitably recommended to him. In addition to subscribers' copies, I 
sent to Mr. Parry, at Sandhurst, 42 books; and I sent 96 others to depositaries 
elsewh'ere, subject to his orders, thus : 35 to Melbourne (G. S. Geddes, 1 1 
Latrobe St., East), 33 to Warrnambool (F. W. Briggs), 5 to Hamilton [W. G. 
Farroll), 4 to Ballarat (R. A. Thompson), 19 to Hobart, Tasmania (T. F. 
Hallam, at Glenorchy, or R. O. Bishop, at 58 Elizabeth St.), and 30 to Sydney, 
New South Wales (James Copland, Sydney Bicycle Club, 85 Market St.). 

Books may be bought at Ss. 8d. on personal application to either of these 
agents, and I presume the last-named would mail a copy to any one who might 
send him the price from any town of New South Wales or Queensland, though 
I have not yet received his consent thus to act for me (see p. 564). The 
money collected by each of them will be sent to Mr. Parry, to be remitted to 
me; and he will supply them with stamped labels for mailing the books to 
later purchasers, whenever an agent notifies him that local sales cannot be 
made. Assuming that buyers are finally found for the 138 books which I 
have deposited in these S towns, as an offset to my losses on the 100 sub- 
scribers' copies dispatched thither at the same time, I do not intend to send 
out additional ones to be put on sale there, but rather to mail them directly 
from New Vork, on receipt of order for 8s. Sd., or of notice from Mr. Parry 
that he has received such sum on my account, or of paragraph in the Austra- 
lian Cyding Xeu's promising that such sum will be sent me on reception of book 
by the applicant who thus secures the editor's endoKsement of his good-faith. 
I do not expect to ask this help of the JVews before the end of 1SS9, for I sup- 
pose the stock of 138 copies in Mr. Parry's control will hardly be exhausted 
until then. If the editor be good enough to print the names of those who 
may apply to him for this present pamphlet of 132 pages, I will mail copies 
freely whenever I see such names in the Xeivs. It is jniblished in Melbourne, 
on alternate Thursdays, at 5 Collins St., West. Price per quarter, is. 9d. 



SALES IN NEW ZEALAND. 

My representative among the New Zealanders is tlic ex-Captain of the 
Pioneer B. C, Wm. H. Langdown, of Christchurch — a city of about the size 
of Sandhurst, though the entire population of the colony is rated at 500,000. 
His wheeling biography is given on p. 569 ; and, in a farewell talk had with me, 
Oct. II, '87 [he sailed ne.\t day for England, after more than a year's experi- 
ence of American life ; and he intended to sail homeward from England, in 
March, '88J, the belief was expressed that a goodly number of buyers might 
be found for the book, among the 300 wheelmen of his native town, — to say 
nothing of the chances in the lesser cycling-centers of the double-island. I 
sent 33 books for sale there in advance of him, besides 22 subscribers' copies, 
and I may forward a later supply if the demand warrants. He will mail the 
book to any part of the colony, on receipt of Ss. 8d. (or, if the supply be ex- 
hausted, will send me monthly orders for mailing them from New York, and 
for mailing special chapters for whicli is. each may have been paid him) ; and 
it may also be bought on personal application to W. M. Service, at Auckland, 
and H. Snow, at Oamaru, who will send to Mr. Langdown, for transmission 
to me, the money received thus and from local subscribers. Residents of 
Dunedin and Wellington, who may wish to take a look at the book before 
ordering it, should apply to E. H. Burn and D. W. M. Burn, to whom I also 
send copies of this pamphlet for distribution. [I assume the present good- 
will of my agents at the three latter towns, wi^,hout having lately heard from 
them.] 

These same 132 pages, which I thus offer to mail gratuitously, are 
also given as an appendix to each of two larger pamphlets, containing reprints 
of separate chapters : " Curl, the Best of Bull Dogs " (28 pages, with photo- 
gravure) and "Castle Solitude in the Metropolis" (56 pages, with wood-cut). 
I will mail either of these, or the unbound sheets of any other chapter, at 
sight of a paragraph in A. C.Xiws, saying that the person designated has paid 
the editor thereof a shilling for the same, in my behalf. Similar payments 
may also be made to me through my agents at Sandhurst, Vict., and Christ- 
church, N. Z., but the pamphlets will be mailed by myself in New York, on 
orders from them. Any Australasian correspondent, who may prefer to pur- 
chase a copy more promptly, can enclose a shilling's worth of penny postage- 
stamps directly to myself, and receive the pamphlet by return steamer. 
Names designed for enrollment as supporters of " My Second Ten Thou- 
sand " — whose terms are explained elsewhere in this pamphlet and on p. 716 
of the book — may be sent to me at Sandhurst and Christchurch. 

In correction of the statement on p. 570, 1 may add that the Australasiait, 
under the editorship of Charles E. Bevington, now has '■'■and South American" 
for a sub-title, and is issued every fourth week by the Australasian Publishing 
Co., of N. Y., at 22 State st. (The Battery), with an annual subscription rate 
ot $3. It is a large and apparently prosperous trade-journal (92 pp., 1 1 by 16 in.), 
containing information of value to people who have commercial or personal 
interests in these countries. [Melbourne: 30 Collins st, ; Sydney: i2oKing.st.] 

N3 



IN CANADA AND GREAT BRITAIN. 

Canada's "tax on knowledge," in the shape of a 15 per cent, duty, has 
discouraged me from attempting any extensive sales there,— my sole deposi- 
tory being at 1421 St. Catherine st., Montreal, where I have put 40 books in 
the hands of A. T. Lane, for sale at $2 each. If a Canadian send $2 to 
myself, I shall order his book mailed from Montreal ; so no second duty need 
be levied. Mr. Lane not only undertakes to work for me without charge or 
commission,— the same as all my other agents,— but he appends to thefuil- 
page adv. of his own business as a bicycle dealer, in the Canadian Wheehnan, 
a notice that he will m*ail the book to any address in the Dominion on receipt 
of the price. His example reminds me to hereby recommend every such dealer 
in America who advertises extensively in the cycling press, to insert at the 
foot of his own announcements a brief "free adv.," giving at least the name, 
price and publisher's address of " Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." 

No books will be put on sale by me in England, for the cost of mailing 
them thither is no greater than between towns in the United States, and a 
British buyer may usually count on receiving a copy within three weeks from 
the day when he mails me a post-office order for 8s. 8d. If he prefers to send 
such cjfderto the Publisher of IVhccUng, 152 Fleet St., London, its arrival will 
be acknowledged in the "Answers to Correspondents " of that Wednesday 
weekly, and, at sight of such acknowledgment, I will mail the book from New 
York. As regards the edition de luxe (200 copies only, on heavy paper, 
tinted), I will mail the unbound sheets for 8s. 8d., or the complete book for 
IDS., in regulation binding of blue and gold. On receipt of 25 half-penny 
stamps, either by myself or the Publisher of Wheeling, I will mail the unbound 
sheets of "British and Colonial Records" (42 pages of 37,000 words), or of 
any other single chapter ; or either one of the two following reprints, each of 
which is bound in an olive-green cover and contains as an appendix the 132 
pages of the present pamphlet: "Curl, the Best of Bull-Dogs" (28 pages, 
with photogravure), and " Castle Solitude in the Metropolis " {56 pages, with 
wood-cut). 

In case of delay in arrival of any book or pamphlet, the buver should 
address his complaint to me (not to IVIieeling, even though he may have sent 
the money to its Publisher originally), and I will agree to satisfy him. The 
present pamphlet will be mailed gratis to any applicant by penny post-card, or 
to one whose request may reach me through the "Ans. to Cor." column of 
Wlieeling. Names designed for insertion in the roll of supporters of " My 
Second Ten Thousand " (thus securing the privilege of buying it for two- 
thirds its regular price, if published, though incurring no obligation to buy 
it,— as explained elsewhere in this pamphlet, and on p. 716 of book) may also 
be sent to me through Wheeling In naming " England " as the residence of 
those who may allowably deal with me by use of this medium, I do not de- 
sign to employ the word restrictively. Dwellers in Continental Europe, or in 
any other part of the world, who may find it convenient to address me through 
Wheeling, are assured that their requests will be duly regarded. 

P3 



RE MITT A NCES A XD A CKNO WLEDGMEN TS. 

Ackiu>\vle(lgment is promptly made for every letter which brings me 
money or its ecpiivalent. A sender who fails to receive such response within 
a week from the time when it ought naturally to reach him, should write 
again, — giving exact details as to the nature of his remittance, the presence 
or absence of a "return request " on its envelope, and the time and place of 
posting. If this second letter brings no reply, a duplicate of it should be 
addressed to me in some manner which makes it unrecognizable by the person 
who presumably stopped the others: c. .^., it may be enclosed in a double 
envelope, — the outer one directed to a friend in some other town, or to the 
editor of one of the cycling journals, who will remail to me the inner one. 

Postal-notes are objectionable, because costing the sender a fee and 
trouble without giving him any security against loss. A thief can use them 
with no more question than if they were money. U. S. or Canadian postage- 
stamps of I c. and 2 c. values are acceptable to me for any sum less than %i ; 
half-penny English or Australian stamps for any sum less than 4s. In send- 
ing such stamps, and in enclosing greenbacks of $1 or $2 values, care should 
be taken to have the paper and envelope opaque enough not to reveal the fact 
of such enclosure, even when exposed to the strongest light. For any sum 
greater than $2, a post-office order or an e.vpress money-order shoidd be 
bought. Its cost maybe deducted from the amount due me. The American, 
United States, Pacific and other expresses issue such orders at a fee of 5 c. up 
to $5, 8 c. up to $10, and 10 c. up to $20; and they are bankable, the same as 
drafts. The sender must put his name at the indicated place on the back of 
each express order, after assuring himself that the inscription at the top 
makes it '■'■payable to Karl Kron, at the University Piiilding, IsFe'iV York City, £>." 

The American, United States, Baltimore & Oiiio, National, Erie and some 
other expresses offer a "special mail-rate" for prepaid packages of printed 
matter, — namely 15 c. for 2\ lbs., without regard to distance carried, — pro- 
vided the place addressed is an office on one of these connecting expresses 
recognizing said special rate. If an attempt is ever made to levy an extra 
charge on a book thus prepaid, the person addressed should resist it, and 
should report the circumstances to the Publisher, giving date and name of 
town from which the package is billed. 

As the book itself weighs only two pounds, its wrappers may weigh four 
ounces without raising the total beyond the 15 c. express-rate. It should 
either be enclosed in a pasteboard box, or else be packed with guards of 
pasteboard or stout paper, so that the covers need not be marred by the string 
used in tying the outside wrapper. In preparing the book for the mail, two 
ounces may be added by its wrappers, without raising the postage-rate above 
17 c. A set of protective tins for the four corners weigh less than an ounce, 
and the special pasteboard case which I sometimes use instead of them weighs 
less than two ounces. In applying the tins, their flat sides should be put oiit- 
side ; the book should then be wrapped in stout paper and securely tied, but 
without any pasting or sealing. 

O3 



SL^GGEST/OXS A. YD CORRKCT/O.WS. 

" New York " is a direction which will sutiice to bring a letter to me, 
ailtiniately, in case nothing more definite can be remembered; but, on the 
other hand, the inscription of my address in full is recommended as needed to 
ensure prompt delivery. Washington Square chances to be divided between 
three postal districts, and delivery of mail-matter at the University Building 
is therefore facilitated by mentioning that its district is " D." As the full 
address is somewhat long, I suggest that correspondents mav be saved the 
trouble of writing it, by cutting it from my envelopes and pasting it on the 
■envelopes which bring their replies. Replies themselves mav also often be 
•conveniently made, in informal fashion, by writing on the margins or between 
the lines of my letters (which are done by type-writer), and remailing those 
same to me, so that I can file the original questions with their answers. 

Personal calls can be attended to only between 4 and 6 \\ m., e.xcept bv 
special appointment ; and an interview even at those hours mav be more cer- 
tainly ensured by sending notice in advance. (All this is e.\-plained on p. 730, 
which prospective visitors are requested to read.) Whenever I leave town 
for more than a day or two, that fact may be learned at the janitor's office 
(Xo. 9, QH ground floor); and in such cases, my mail-matter is duly forwarded. 
Misprints of book's price ("^1.50" for "$2") occur on pages 707, 711, 
73-^ 734. 799. ^vhich were cast before the great increase in size made a change 
necessary; but they are of course not to be considered as contradicting the 
true record of the title-page. No attention should be paid, either, to the re- 
mark on page 799, that books will be mailed directly by the manufacturers, the 
Springfield Printing Co. The same remark also' appears on 15,000 of' my 
posters, labels and envelopes, which were printed when book was first pub- 
lished; but a limitation should have been made to the year 1SS7. That pre- 
liminary arrangement has now ceased, and all money-orders of $2, from any 
town in the U. S., should hereafter be addressed directly to the publisher, 
Karl Kro\, a( t/ie University Buiidiiit;, U'as/iiiigton S,//uin; A'. V. City, D. 

The only region excepted from the foregoing request is the Pacific Slope. 
In order to ensure prompt delivery there, I have deposited 100 books with 
J. J. Bliss, at 22S Phelan Building, San f>ancisco, and he has consented to 
mail copies to any town west of the Rocky iMountains, in response to all 
money-orders of $2 which may reach him before the close of iSSS. Residents 
of the city may buy the book of him during business-hours, or mav apply for 
a fortnight's examination of it, " on approval." under prescribed conditions. 
He offers to take all this trouble as a mere matter of good-will, the same as 
my other agents, who simply hold copies for me on sale. 

The much-neglected preface and index of a book are of more use to the 
reader than is generally supposed. Some of our great geniuses are e.xpert in 
the art of inde.v-reading. We venerate the inventor of the index. We often 
learn the character of a work through these sources. Read both preface and 
index, as the light thus obtained will help regulate vour course as to the 
amount of time to be devoted to the book.— J/,-.,;///^ of American History. 

U ' 



A'AJ/ES IVAA'TED, AAD '' O/VA'/OA'S." 

The l'ul)lislier desires to file the naiiiu and address of every buyer of the 
book, — "not necessarily for publication, but as a guaranty of good faith." 
Each buyer will therefore confer a favor by sending me this information, giv- 
ing time and place of purchase; and he is also invited to heed the requests 
on pp. 714-17, as to offering an opinion of such " points" as chance to im- 
jMcss him, cither for good or for evil, and as to offering his name in support 
of " 2 X. .M." I'>ach depositary, when he sends me the i)rice of a book, is also 
urged to send buyer's name and address. One reason for filing these names 
is that I want to avoid wasting any literary ammunition on those who have 
already been captured; another reason is that 1 want documentary evidence to 
prove, after I //dve captured the 30,000, that my proclamation of the fact rests 
upon a somewhat firmer basis than "the ordinary book-agent's lie." 

In asking for " opinions," on p. 715,"! specially urge that faults be 
•called to my attention : not only printers' blunders, misstatements of fact and 
defects of e.xecution, but everything which to the mind of a subscriber seems 
an error of judgment, — as regards omission as well as commission ; for a 
general agreement of critics concerning objectionable points will give me a 
valuable warning as to what to avoid hereafter." On the other hand, if points 
•which some oliject to are approved of by others, I shall receive agreeable 
•evidence of having succeeded in my plan of appealing to a multitude of di- 
verse and conflicting tastes. My theory as publisher of such an encyclopae- 
dia is, — not that any single buyer will approve the whole of it, or even read 
the whole of it, but rather that its mass and variety of matter are so great as 
to convince any buyer of having " got his money's worth," even if pleased with 
only a fractional part of it, and indifferent or hostile to all the rest. A book 
should be supported, — just as a man is, in his private or public life, — not for 
the absence of faults, but for the presence of merits. 

The aim of this pamphlet is to spread the evidence, already given in the 
newspapers, that this book, despite its manifest faults, is well worth the 
very low price charged for it. Additions to such evidence, in the form of 
testimony from appreciative subscribers, would make an interesting supple- 
mentary pami)hlet, — and this might be even more effective in attracting new 
buyers, because the opinions of practical wheelmen who had paid for their 
books might well seem more genuine and significant than mere " newspapci 
notices." 'I'hus, those of my copartners who are jirevented by isolation or 
other cause from verbally helping win the new patrons needed for the scheme's 
success, may indirectly help by contributing to the supply and variety of 
literary bait which it is necessary for me to employ in fishing for them. 
Aside from this practical consideration, I am glad to have any subscriber 
assure me, however briefly, that he has received the book, and is satisfied 
Avith it ; and I wish each new buyer, to whom I send it by mail or express, 
"would promptly acknowledge to me its arrival in good condition. Should 
any copy be found defective, I will arrange to have it returned to the manu- 
facturers and re])laced by a perfect one, without e.xpense. 

Q3 



SCBSCJU/BE/aS AS AGEXTS. 

Suhin/>trs 7f/io r<\r/7V <o/i<\t of Preface and Cofitents-Tablc {whereof I print 
an extra ed. of 10,000, as an adz'. of the Nvk) are itn-ited to distribute the same 
a/nong their eyeling^ aet/uaintanees and other possible purchasers, f shall account 
it a special fm-or if they will sh<nv the booh itself to local librarians and hotel-keep- 
ers, and -vill supply nie 'uith the addresses of wheelmen who are likely to be inter- 
ested in my circulars and specimen pages. 

Ten Thovsand Miles ox a Bicycle. Hy Karl Kron, author of " Four Years at Yale, 
by a Graduate of "(x)." Cloth bound, gilt top, photogravure frontispiece, 41 chapters, 90S pages. 
675.000 words, el.iborate indexes ^IO,4^S titles and 22,806 references), no advertisements. Mailed 
on receipt of money-order for $2, by the publisher, Karl Kron, at the Uith-frsity Builtii\^, 
It 'iishiu^oti Sfnar,-. .\Vr<> 1 \>ri C/ty, D. Analytical contents-table, descriptive circulars and 
specimen p.-iges sent free to any applicant by postal-cird. (Publication was ni.ade May 25, i8S7.> 

I am perfectly aware that the average hard-headed business-man, whether 
engaged in the book-trade or in any other, will class me as a crank and a vis- 
ionary, when I say that my main reliance for success is the simple sentiment 
of good-will towards myself which I assume that the book will create in the 
minds of tlie 3000 strangers whom I call " my co-partners," and to whom I 
supply it at half-price. If each one of these shall be enough pleased with it 
to prortiptly persuade even one friend to buy a copy, I shall get back the 
money which I have risked ; atid, if each one shall be enough pleased to sell 
ten copies for me, within three or four years, I shall win a. fair reward for 
my long labors. I have paid no one anything for soliciting subscribers, and 
I shall pay no one anything for selling the book. Whoever buys a copy from 
one of my depositaries may rest assured that the entire profit thereon will 
reach me as certainly as if mailed direct. 

Massachusetts subscribers east of Framingham will call for their books at the Boston office 
of the Pope Mfg. Co., 79 Franklin St., and copies will be kept on sale also by \V. W. Stall, 
509 Tremont st. ; \V. Read & Sons, 107 Washington st. As regards New York City, the So 
subscribers of Citiiens B. C. will get their books .it the club-house and pay the club treasurer : 
members of the N. Y., Lxion and Harlem clubs, and all residents above 41st St., and in West- 
chester county, will call at O. R. Bidwell's, 31J W. sSth st. ; while .ill the non-club subscrib- 
ers who live bv^low 42d st., and all the Brooklyn men (except K. C. W., who will be attended to 
by Mr. Loucks, at the club-house\ will find their copies at the Pope Mfg. Co.'s, 12 Warren st. 
1 sh.ill also deix>sit at that agency all Long Island, Staten Island and New Jersey books 
(except those for Bordentown, Camden, Morrislown, Newark, Orange and Trenton). In 
Brooklyn, the volume may be bought of SchwalKich Prospect Park Plaza. 
Chicago subscribers will call at the Pope Mfg. Co.'s, 21)1 Wabash av. ; and three other leading 
lirms there will serve me freely as selling-agents : the Gormully & Jeffery Mfg. Co., 222 X. 
Franklin St. : the J. Wilkinson Co., 77 State st. ; A. G. Sp.ilding & Bro., loS Madison st. 
My oiher most imiwrtant depositaries are these : Riltimore, ?. T. Clark & Co., 2^4 Hanover 
St. ; Buffalo, E. X. Bowen, 5S5 M.iin st. ; Cincinnati, A. .■\. Bennett, 4th st. ; Cleve- 
land, : Hartford, Weed S. M. Co. : Newark, H. A. Smith & Co., Oraton H.ill : 

.'^t. Louis, ; San Francisco, 

; Washington, E. T. Pettengill, 1713 N. Y. av. 

An electrotype of same size as present jiage, giving names and prices of all .American O'cling 
papers now in the market (May 4, 'S7), will be freely supplied by me to any publisher who is will- 
ing to print from it. \ proof will be mailed on application. I will also freely send proofs of any 
pages which any one may wish to reprint, without cutting into his own book for the " copy." 

Pub. at $2 hy Karl Kro.v, at the i'-ih-eraity B.iiidhis. It'iishiM^oH Sf., -V. K City, D. 

(D>' 



DELA Y8 AND CHANGES. 

Ou March 31,1888, when my pamphlet of '• NewspHptT Notices" 
was almost ready for issue, the works of the Spriugfield Priutiug- Com- 
pany were closed by order of the lusolvency Court, aud all my materia', 
there was thus hopelessly locked up for two months. The unsecured 
creditors having at las^t accepted a compromise of 30 per cent, ou aggre- 
gate debts of f53,000, tlie concern re-orgauized. May 30, as " The Spring- 
field Priutiug <t Binding Co.," with a capital of $100,000, and begau 
moving the plant and material into a new building, for the resumption of 
business. Unaccountable delays, however, prevented the delivery to me 
of my property, even in an unliuished condition, until the middle of 
July, when the final 48 pages were priuted in New York, by D. C. 
Crocker, of No. 1 Wiuthrop Place, close to the University Buildiug, who 
also set the type for the half-dozen latest plates used iu such printing. 
Tims, for no fault of mine, tlie pamphlet is published four mouths after 
the time promised, or ou the very day named as latest allowable time for 
delivering to the biuder those 9(5 of its pages which I venture to repro- 
duce in the '• Publisher's Trade-List Annual," July 81, 1888. 

In addition to and correction of the facts about '• Cycling Books in 
the American ]VIarket, March 1, 1888 \\i. (50)," the following are ottered : 

A. J. Wilsou, of Povverscroft House, Clapton, London (see pp. xcix., 
534 'X. M. Miles"), otters to mail either of his books, " The Pleasures of 
Cycling" aud "Two Trips to the Emerald Isle," profusely illustrated by 
G. Moore, on receipt of a half-dollar money-order. He has deposited 
sixteen of the latter book with me, for mailing on the same terms; and if 
anyone sends me fifty cents for " The Pleasures," I will instruct Mr. W. 
to mail it from Loudon.- I make no charge for this service, wliich is 
simply in the line of my theory that all wheelmen should freely help the 
sale of cycling literature. "Pedal aud Path" is now mailed for 35c. 
(one-third the original price), by Bi. World Co., 13 Pearl street. Boston. 
It has 344 pp., besides 10 inset picture-pages, and its 37 chapters com- 
prise 80,000 words (not "about 140,000," as noted on pp. X3, xcvii.). 
Of the American cycling papers listed on p. 04, the W/ieelnKdi.s, of St. 
Louis and San Francisco, seem to have died before July, 188S; but the 
L. A. W. Pointer now flourishes as a semi-monthly at Oshki sli, Wis. 

"Forty Years Out of Yale," by a Graduate of '09 (to be published iu 
1909, by Karl Kron, if alive then), will contain at least one chapter de- 
scribing the ett'ectiveness of this present collectiou of " Newspaper 
Notices " in attracting the 30,000 buyers. 

"Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle " is very complete indeed; 
packed full of information. — F. G. S., Carpenter, Pa. 

A marvel of cheapness at #3. I am so well pleas-d with it that I 
shall try and send you two or three more orders soon. — O. H. C, Santa 
Fe, N. M. The book has thus cost me double the sum subscribed, but I 
would not be without it if its price were $5. — J. D. />., Philadelphia. 



COMPLIMEXTS FOR " CUKLP 

The uiiiciue frontispiece of "Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle,"— a clip- 
ped-eared bull-dog, done by the new process called photogravure,— is some- 
thing of a surprise in a book on such a subject, and the question as to its 
meaning is not answered by reference to some 20 pages of the dog's biogra- 
phy to which attention is called. The volume is inscribed to the memory of 
"the very best dog whose presence ever blessed this planet." Well, he cer- 
tainly does not look it, but the account of his life— and death— is the very 
best thing, from a literary point of view, in a volume of 900 pages. It is 
capital in itself, but its excellence must be the chief reason for its appearance 
in the midst of a tedious record of roads and journeys with which it has no 
sort of connection. That the dog thus immortalized'was a great favorite of 
the author's in his youth, and that the author himself is popular with wheel- 
men and now avowedly wishes to make money upon his popularity, are facts 
hardly sufficient to justify the insertion of such a sketch in the body of a 
work so different in style and purpose. It is a piece of egotism that by no 
means stands alone. Yet, in view of the great quantity of matter here con- 
densed 5nd classified, the picture of the bull-dog which embellishes the first 
page, would seem to be a fitting emblem of the perseverance with which the 
author has pushed to completion his three years' ^■!i%k.— Boston Advertiser. 

The extraordinary author dedicates his work to " The Memory of My 
]!nll-Dorg." — Boston Post. 

The dedication of the book to the author's bull-dog may have merit as a 
sentimental freak, but it is a literary t\ftz\M\o\\.— McGregor Neivs, la. 

The author is possessed of a vein of smart American humor, which illu- 
minates the dry text of his book from beginning to end. In places, such as the 
inimitable chapter devoted to his bull-dog " Curl," he soars to a pitch which 
reminds the reader very forcibly of Mark Twain and Max Adeler; and the 
cyclist who loves his dog will read tWs chapter over more than once. To 
"Curl," whose noble and expressive features act as frontispiece, the book is 
dedicated, and there is a certain pathos in the selection.— ^F//^^//>/o-, London 
Admirers of dogs, and of out-door sports,«^ill take kindly to the Ijook.— 
A\"iV Orleans Pieayiuie. 

"Curl" and "Castle Solitude in the Metropolis" are well worth read- 
ing, but of doubtful appropriateness in "a book of American roads."— 
IV/ieehnen's Gazette, Ind/anapotis. 

A frontispiece, representing the head of a particularly ill-favored bull- 
dog, to whose memory the book is lovingly dedicated, forewarns the reader 
that the intellectual rambles of a bicycler did not necessarily share in the 
directness and regularity of his routes. The claim of this pet dog to public 
notice is not clearly established; but his interesting physiognomy, confront- 
mg the reader, in some measure compels a perusal of the chapter devoted to 
the uneventful career of the animal ; and the theme apparently draws out the 
author's best literary powers.— ^/A/ California, San Pranciseo. 

(A 



'•PUBLISHERS' TRADE-LIST ANNUAL:' 

The iuvitatiou that I contribute my catalogue to the sixteenth } early 
" Publishers' Trade-List Annual" (to be issued September 1, 1888, by R. 
R. Bowker, 330 Pearl street, N. Y.), was received after almost all my 
pages had been electrotyped. Though not planned for any such ultimate 
usage, reflection upon the offer convinced me that the experiment of in- 
serting them there might be worth trying. The collected catalogues of 
'87 made a monster volume of about 3000 pages (seven by ten inches in 
size, four and a half inches thick, and weighing nine pounds); and the 
'88 collection promises to be as large, — the edition being fixed at 1750 
copies. Miinj'^ curious contrasts are always shown in the topography 
and "styles" of the lists contributed; but I think that no previous list has 
ever occupied anything like as many as 48 pages of the "Annual " in ad- 
vertising a single book. My decision to use 96 of these electrotypes for 
such a purpose will therefore give one novel feature to the '88 edition; 
and it will compel publishers and booksellers to at least recognize the 
fact that ■' cycling*' is enough of a phenomenon to have caused the in- 
vestment of an extraordinary amoimt of capital in this scheme for circu- 
lating its literature. They may not believe that the gratitude of my 3400 
advance subscribers, for receiving such a book at half price, will be an 
important factor in securing the needed 30,000 buyers; but the mere 
mass of evidence, that I am in good-faith trying to work so elaborate a 
scheme on so unusual a basis, may perhaps make some of my arguments 
seem worth reading by men " in the trade." If the other contributions 
to the "Annual " average as in '87, my own pages (placed under " K" in 
the alphabetical arrangement) will stand almost exactly in the center of 
the volume. 

In modification of the remark upon other pages, that I will iiot pay 
postage or expressage upon book except at $2, even to a bookseller, but 
only offer him the discount of 25 c. on condition of his personal!}^ pur- 
chasing at one of my depositories {e. g., in New York, at 12 Warren st., 
near City Hall), I may say that I will deliver it for fl.75 to any forward- 
ing-agent within a half-mile of Washington Square, — which is close 
beside Astor Place, the center ol the publishing district. The Blakeman 
& Taylor Co., 740 Broadway; Scribner's Sons, 743 Broadway, and James 
Kell}% 25 Bond St., f.re agents within the limits named, and through 
them my orders from out-of-town dealers have thus far been tilled. I 
think the book may be bought in London of S. Low & Co., Fetter Lane, 
Fleet St. ; but, as they pay me $1.75 for it iii^ew York, their price must 
needs be more than the 8s. 8d., for which I mail it directly to anyr 
address in England. 

The printer of my contribution to tiie " Annual" is D. C. Crocker^ 
near the University Building, who supplies 7 of the 96 plates thus used 
(N4 to T4), and who also prints pp. 33 to 80 of the pamphlet, the other 
pages having come from the press of the Springfield Printing Company. 

S4 



BOOA'S AXD /'.-iJ'EAS J^ECOMME.XDED. 

On pp. xcvi., 4S3, 655 of my book, and also on all its labels and show-bills (15,000 printed to 
<late\ 1 have recommended, as the most readable collection of cycling travels ever issned, 
I'homas Stevens's " Around the World on a Bicycle." The first volume tells the story of his 
strange adventures from California to Persia i,5jo pp. of 230,000 words : 1 10 illustrations ; 
cloth bound; $4; pub. May 31, 'ij, by C. Scribner's Sons, N. V.), and the second one wili 
comprise the even more remarkable ones in Afghanistan, India, China and Japan, including 
much material not included in the Ouiirt^ series which terminates in May, 'SS. That month is 
named as probable time of apv>earance of the volimie, — by the same publishers, and presumably 
of similar size and price as the first. Autographed copies of either will be mailed by Mr. Ste- 
vens personally, to any one who sends him the retail price : and it any one chooses to send it to 
him through myself, it will reach him promptly, as we are in frequent communication. 

Advertisenjent has freely been given by me, on 15,000 posters, l.tbels and envelopes, that 
;he chief English book on the subject is " Cycling," by Lord Bury and G. L. Hillier (472 pp. 
iif 150,000 words; 79 illustrations; $3.50; pub. in March, 'S7, by Longmans, Green & Co., 
London), in the Badminton Library of Sports ; and I dex-oted nearly a page (xcviii. of the ad- 
denda) to reprinting all the favorable press-notices 1 could find of it, and also the adv. of its 
.■\merican importers. Little, Brown & Co., of Bi>ston. The sort of '" reciprocity " accorded me 
ni return may be found by perusing the " Condemnation from Coventr\-," on the 19th and 20th 
pages of this pamphlet. Longmans, Green & Co. also pub. in Feb., 'SS, " Our Sentimental 
Journey Through France and Italy," by Joseph and F.lizabeth Robins Pennell (a tricycle tour, 
with may-and 124 illustrations ; $1.75) ; and they adv. to mail the same from 15 E. i6th St., N. V. 

A touring book which I can recommend as well- printed and readable is '" Wanderings : on 
Wheel and on Fo«.>t through Europe," by Hugh Cailan, M. .A. of Glasgow University (216 pp., 
pub. Sept. ,'87, by S. Low & Co., London, at is. 6d.). It is fully described by rae on pp. xcix., 
515 ; and the author has agreed to mail it to any address in the U. S. whenever I notify him by 
Vostal-crtrd that 40 cents have been dep».»sited with me and accredited to his account. 

Death has overtaken half the 16 American cycling papers catalogued ten months ago, when 
the list on page ci. of my book's addenda was electrotyped, and there has been one birth during 
the interval. Seven of those 16 were born during the preceding nine months, and death mean- 
while cut off 3 of the 12 in existence .-^ug. 1, i$S6, as listed on p. 654. As S had died before 
that date, the S which are named below as now surviving (March i, iSSS^ are the remnant of 27. 
and are more than doubly outnumbered by those at rest in the journalistic grave-yard. Named 
in the order of their age, .the two oldest are weeklies, the youngest is a semi-t«outhly, the others 
are monthlies: BUycUng U'^rid, 12 Pearl st.. Boston, Ms.; iVkeel,^^ Park Row, N. Y. ; 
M' kef I men's Gasetie, 25 Sentinel Building, Indianapolis, Ind. ; Canadian ll'keelmaH, London, 
Ontario, Can.; Star Adz-ocate, East Rochester, N. H. ; Atnu^kan ICkeelman, loS N. 
Fourth St., St. Louis, Mo. : Bicyde, West Randolph, Vt. ; Facile Coast lykeelmnn and Atft- 
Ute.Ssxi Francisco. Cal. The annual subscription is $i. 00 for the weeklies and 50 c. for the 
others, except that the BicycU costs only 12c., and the Canadian If 'neelman is sent free to each 
member of the Canadian Wheelmen's Association (price $1 to outsiders). 

English cycling journalism is now reduced to the two weekly organs of " the Coventry ring," 
Cyclist iWednesday) and Bicycling Xetvs (Saturday), and two opposition weeklies : Wheeling 
(Tuesday), edited by C. W. Nairn, at 152 Fleet St., and *e St-tving-Machiai <5^ Cycle Netvs 
^Saturday), edited by H. H. Griffin, at 2 Whitef riars st. , Fleet St., — both of which men were until 
recently in the employ of " the ring." Each paper is sold at a penny a copy, or mailed at 6s. 
6d. a year. The Bi. .V'e-nv is the only one of the four that gives much attention to touring, or 
that usually contains cartoons. It is advertised as " the oldest cycling paper in the world," and 
as "printed for the proprietors by Ihffe & Son." who also advertise that they print the Cyclist 
" for the proprietors, W. 1. lliffe aud H. Sturmey." In my book, I use the phrases "Coventry 
ring '' and " the Iliffes," indifierently, as referring to these three men ; for their practical re- 
lationship to the public is that of a single firm of printers and publishers (aiming to control a 
monopoly of the cycling trade literature in Great Britain), no matter what may be their exact 
legal status individually, as sharers in the profits of the two firms which they see fit to conduct. 

W-, 



Thomas Stevens s Great Work. 

VOL. II. READY IMMEDIATELY. 




Around the World on a Bicycle. 

,, By THOMAS STEVENS. 

m. \' 

1, With over 200 Illustrations and Colored Frontispiece of Author 

VlJll'i in Volume I. In two volumes, 8vo, $8.00; 

m^AiJIM single volumes, $4.00. 



V^.\. 



WITH the publication of the second volume, this 
unique and the most monumental work of its 
kind ever jjublished will be completed. It is a work 
that should be placed foremost in the library of every 
bicyclist, or any one interested in a journey never 
before equaled for its daring exploits and heroic 
courage. The work constitutes a library in itself, and has been conceded to 
be the most remarkable book published for many years. 

1^^ Few works ever published have received such un([ualiried indorse- 
ment from press and public -'al^did Volume I. of Mr. Stevens's work imme- 
diately upon its appearance. 



" It is a most entertaining book. We ad- 
mire the pluck and manliness of the author, 
his intelligence and resources. His descrip- 
tions of people and places are fresh and vivid. 
The ' wheel' draws to itself a crowd in every 
village. It introduces its owner to men and 
women whom another tourist would never 
meet, and it makes him welcome and at home 
in the greatest variety of company. But Mr. 
Stevens is more than a 'wheelman.' lie has 
given us in this book instructive and useful 
information in geography, tjitsof history aptly 
introduced, and lively descriptions of man- 
ners, customs, and habits of many peoples of 
the globe which he girdled." — A^. V. Observer. 

" The journey from San Francisco to Te- 
heran is capitally told, full of genial humor 
and bright observation ; in short, a narrative 
worthy of this unique journey round the 
globe." — N. Y. Tribune. 



" Mr. Stevens has written a most delightful 
book, and one tiiat is full of lively incident 
throughout. It will have an absorbing inter- 
est for the young and imaginative, and will be 
profitable and instructive reading to those who 
desire to know something of tlieir near and 
distant neighbors " — Charleston News and 
Courier. 

"It is as interesting as a novel, and as 
novel as it is interesting. Though the volume 
is big, it is never tedious ; it is the vastness of 
the route, not its slowness, that makes the 
journey long. Each experience moves with 
the rapidity of the bicycle itself, and each is 
entertaining." — The Critic. 

" Mr. Stevens possesses the dramatic faculty 
in a high degree. His achievement is one that 
is without ])arallel, and the story of it is of 
absorbing interest." — Caiiihridire Tribune. 



*^* Mr. Stevens's work will he sent, postpaid, to any address, upon receipt of price by 



CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 743-745 Broadway, N. Y. 




(FROM VOL. I. OF HIS FAMOUS WORK "AROUND THE WORLD ON A BICV( 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS ) 



A BLAST FROM " THE THUNDEEEJV 

Difficult as it is to praise Mr. K.arl Kron's book, we can say liouestly 
that it contains a mass of information, chiefly of the Baedeker kind, like- 
ly to be useful to cyclists in America. The author seems to have wlieeled 
into most corners of the Eastern States, and has collected a mass of facts 
and figures. He is evidently an enthusiast on the wheel, and one or two 
of his general essays upon the amusement are interesting. Bat the book 
is, on the whole, dry, and so badly arranged that it can hardly be said to 
boast of any order. Its ample indexes, however, give it value as a book 
of reference, in which light we suppose it is to be regarded, ratlier than 
as the interesting narrative for which the title prepares us. — The Times. 

Eight dolldrs may be well and wisely spent in purchasing the two large 
illustrated volumes in which Thomas Stevens tells of his marvelous exploits 
" Around the Woi'ld on a Bicycle.'''' I have improved every occasion to recom- 
tnend the same as the most readable collection of cycling travels ever issued, <yr 
ever likely to be issued; and 'iny opinion is followed by so cold-blooded and 
dispassionate an authoiHty as the reviewer of the world's chief daily news- 
paper, the ^^ London Times,'''' wlio praises hiin unreservedly f(/r more tlian a 
column. He also adopts my them^y , that'the literary excellence of tlie work 
(considered as the first attempt of a man tchose '^schooling ended at four- 
teen ") is almost as much of a phenovienon as the "■globe girdling'''' which it 
describes, and which (^otlier London daily, the ^^ Pall Mall Gazette,^'' calls 
" the most splendid piece of personal adventure of this century, — and it will 
pn'etty certainly remain unequaled in our time." BUT, if any one wishes to 
have this strange story without the expenditure of $8, he should pay a qua/rter 
of that sum for " Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle," which contains a cmn- 
2)lete abstract of it, and also many personal facts not included in the oi'iginal. 

Such is the remarkable epitome of Mr. Stevens's travels. The most 
sensational of them — those subsequent to leaving Teheran — are not in- 
cluded in this first volume ; and we are indebted to Mr. Karl Kron for 
out- facts concerning his journey from Teheran to Yokohama. 
He tells us little about himself, his outfit, or his iiistory : and it is Mr. 
Karl Kron again, who informs us that Mr. Stevens never learnt to ride 
till 1883, at the age of thirty — the y ar before he started. — The Times. 

" From Teheran to Yokohama," the second and concluding volume of 
Thomas Stevens's entertaining narrative, is to be issued in September 
at if 4 (N. Y. : Scribners; Loudon : Sampson Low). Mr. Stevens having 
presented me with a quantity of the lithographic portraits similar to 
those forming the frontispiece of his first volume, they will be inserted 
opposite the present page in 3000 of my pamphlets. This portrait and 
105 other illustrations are reproduced in the German edition, translated by 
Dr. F. M. Schruler, in August, 1887, and published at Leipzig, in 1888, 
by F. llirt & Son (" Um die Erde auf dem Zweirad ;" pp. 510: price, 8 m., 
50 p.), who will presumablj- treat the second volume in the same wa}^ 
The English edition can be bought at Melbourne of S. Mullen. 

N4 



MI.XOK CVCLLVG FRI'XTS LV AMERICAN MARKET. 

The new issue (3d ed., ]March, 'SS, price 15c.; see pp. m, 677) of " Atkins's Road Book of 
Boston and Vicinity" deserves mention here because its publisher, C. A. Underwood, of ■>,%(> 
Tremont St., has been liberal-minded enough to volunteer the insertion of a free adv. of mine; 
though my argument that he ought also to make room for the following free list of all the other 
cycling books in the American market did not have power to convert him. 

" Pedal and Path,'" by G.. B. Thayer (32 chapters, 244 pp., about 140,000 words, iilust., 
75c.; seep, xcvii.), a record of cross-continent touring; pub. in '87, at Hartford, Ct., by the 
Evening Post \%%oz\3.'C\ovt. " Hints to Prospective Cycling Tourists in England and Wales " 
(25 c.); " Care and Repair of Wheels " (10 c), written and pub. in '87 by Stamson, Stamford, Ct. 
"A Canterbury Pilgrimage," by Joseph and Elizabeth Robins Pennell (N. Y. : Scribners, Aug., 
'85 ; 50 c). " Two Pilgrims' Progress, or Italy from a Tricycle," by the same (Boston : Roberts 
Bros., Oct., '86). " In and Around Cape Ann," wheelman's guide, by J. S. Webber, jr. 
(lUoucester, Mass., Aug., 85 ; 100 pp. of about 30,000 words; 11 illust. ; cloth bound), mailed 
by author for 75 c. " Lyra Bicyclica : .Sixty Poets on the Wheel " (2d ed., Mar., '85, 160 pp., 
cloth), mailed for 75 c. by the author, J. G. Dalton, 36 St. James av., Boston. " Rhymes of the 
Road and the River," by Chris. Wheeler (Nov., '85, 154 pp., elegantly printed and bound, $2), 
pub. by E. .Stanley Hart & Co., 321 Chestnut St., Philadelphia. "Wheel Songs," poems by 
S. Conant Foster (July, '84, 80 pp., $1.75), pub. by White, Stokes & Allen, N. Y. "Wheels 
and Whims," a cycling novel, by Mrs. F. T. McCray and Miss E. L. Smith (2d ed,. May, '86, 
28Spp., paper covers 50 c.), pub. by J. S. Browniug, 91 Oliver St., Boston. " Star Rider's Man- 
ual '" (2d ml.. Mar., '86, 117 pp., 75 c), pub. by E. H. Corson, editor of the Star Adzwcate, 
East Rochester, N. H. "A. B. C. of Bicycling" (April, '80; 36 pp., 10 c), pub. by H. V,. 
Hart, 811 Arch st., Philadelphia. " Wheelmen's Handbook of Essex County " (3d ed., Aug., 
'86, 74 pp., 20 c), pub. by Geo. Chinn, Beverly, Mass. " Road Book of Long Island " (Apr., 
'86, 90 pp. with maps, cloth boimd, $1), pub by A. B. Barkman, 608 Fourth av. , Brooklyn, N. 
Y. " Wheelmen's Reference Book" (May, '86, 103 pp., 49 lith. portraits, 50c.), pub. by Ducker 
& Goodman, Hartford, Ct. " Canadian Wheelmen's Association's Guide," touring routes. 
(2d ed., Mar., '87, 124 pji. ; see p. 636), mailed for 50 c. by H. B. Donly, Simcoe, Ont. 

Similar to the last named, and more important than many of the other works on the list, 
are the " road books '' (tabulated touring routes with maps) issued by the leadiug State Divis- 
ions of the L. A. W., gratuitously to each member. If sold to outsiders, the price is usually §1, 
but in many cases their sale is forbidden to all except League members of other States. 
Books for the following States have issued : Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New 
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Mo. and Cal. 

Trade catalogues are annually issued by the various American makers of bicycles, and may 
be had by addressing postal-cards as follovis : Pope Mfg. Co., 79 Franklin st., Boston ; 12 
Warren St., N. Y. ; 291 Wabash av., Chicago. Gornnilly & Jeffery Mfg. Co., 222-22S N. 
Franklin St., Chicago. Overman Wheel Co., 182-188 Columbus av., Boston. H. B. Smith 
Machine Co., Smithville, N. J. King Wheel Co., 51 Barclay st., N. Y. Springfield Bicycle 
Mfg. Co., 9 Coruhill, Boston. Smith National Cycle Mfg. Co., Water st., Washington, D. C. 

Annual catalogues or revised price-lists are also published by many importers and dealers, 
including the following cliief advertisers of the cycling press : A. G. Spalding & Brother, loS 
Madison st., Chicago: 241 Broadway, N. Y. Hart Cycle Co., 811 Arch st., Philadelphia. 
Clark Cycle Co., 2 & 4 Hanover st., Baltimore. H. A. Smith & Co., Newark, N. J. G. R. 
Bidwell, 313 W. sSth st., N. Y. W. Read & Son, 107 Washington St., Boston. L. H. John- 
son, Orange, N. J. A. T. Lane, 142 1 St. Catherine St., Montreal. C. Robinson & Co., 22 
Church St., Toronto. E. N. Bowen, 585 Main st., Buffalo. A. A. Bennett, 6 E. Fourth st., 
Cincinnati. St. Louis Wheel Co., 310 N. Eleventh st., St. Louis. John Wilkinson Co., 77 
State St., Chicago. Western Toy Co., Chicago. A. W. Gump Co., Dayton, O. G, W. Rfuse 
<^ Son, Peoria, 111. Huber & Allison, Louisville, Ky. W. W. Stall, 509 Tremont St., Boston. 
C. Schwalbach, Prospect Park Plaza, Brooklyn. Manhattan Wheel Exchange, 49 Cortlaudt 
St., N. Y. E. H. Corson, East Rochester, N. H. " Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle " may 
be consulted at all the above places, and can be bought at most of them. 

X3 



THE TWO -LITER A RV CILIPTERS. 

^'Xo books arc to be rdunicd lo inc at Xc7o York."' That is a trutli wliicli 
I wish to impress upon every person who may chance to hold anv belonging 
to me and may wish to rid himself of the same. My desire is tliat all reship- 
ments should be to new purchasers rather than to myself; and I will send 
labels and directions for tliat jiurpose whenever notice reaches me that such 
action is desirable. If a depositary, or the holder of a book "on approval," 
changes his residence in such a way as renders inconvenient the transfer of 
book or books, let hina notify me that he has deposited the same in the 
liands of some local acquaintance, who will reship them at my request. 

CURL, THE BEST OF 15ULL-DOGS: a Study in Animal Life. 
I'wenty-eight pages of 14,000 words, with photogravure frontispiece; appen- 
di.\ of 132 pages giving specimens of the text and newspaper notices of "Ten 
Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." Sent postpaid to any country in the world, on 
receipt of 25 cents' worth of the lowest denomination of postage-stamps locally 
current. Karl Kron, Pitblisher, at the University Bnild'inff, A'. Y. City. 

CASTLE SOLITUDE IN THE METROPOLIS: a Study in Social 
Science. Fifty-six pages of 34,000 words, with small picture of the Castle; 
appendix of 132 pages, the same as the above. Sent to anv address for 25 c. 

Buyers of either the above pamphlets in the United States or Canada 
should enclose to the Publisher 25 one-cent stamps; in Great Britain, Aus- 
tralasia, or other British colonies, 25 half-penny stamps. Residents of Great 
Britain who send 25 half-penny stamps with an order for the pamphlet (or 
for the unbound sheets of any chapter in the book) to the Publisher of IV/ieel- 
i//x; 152 Fleet st., London, E. C, will find the same acknowledged in the 
" Answers to Correspondents " of that Wednesday weekly ; and, at sight of 
such notice, I will mail from New York the print thus ])aid for. Similarlv, 
if anv one in Australia sends 25 half-penny stamps to my agent there (W. 
J. Parry, Wills St., .Sandhurst, Vict.), he will notify me, in next monthly 
letter, to mail the desired print from New York. If any subscriber to the 
Australian Cycliui^ AWc-f sends the stamps to that paper, with request that 
the editor thereof hold them for me and jirint an order that I forward a ]iam- 
])hlet, I presume he will do so, — though his formal consent to such plan has 
not vet reached me. I also assume his willingness still further to follow the 
friendly example of Wheeling, by freelv printing the name and address of anv 
aj^plicant who wishes me to send him the present i)amphlet of 132 pages, 
gratis. 

Either of the two " studies " may be ordered at 25 cents, through any 
bookstore in the United States or Canada. In such case, the dealer himself 
will reuiit 15 cents to me for it, — or 18 cents, if he wishes it sent by mail. 

Of blank volumes, ruled for the preservation of riding-records (see p. 676), tlie three most 
elaborate are F. W. Weston's " My Cycling Log Hook " (Boston : C. H. Whiting, 16S Devon- 
shire St. ; $1.25) ; RichwMie Brothers' " Wheelmen's Record Book " (Philadelphia : E. Stanley 
)Iart & Co., 321 Chestnut st. ; 70 c.), and C. D. Batchelder's " Record Rook " f Lancaster, N. 
IL ; 50C.). The two latter are for pockat use. All are cased in leatlier ; but a cloth-bound 
edition of the last-named is also issued at 30 cents. 

(Y3) 



'•U-HEELMEX'S GAZETTE'' A.VD ''WHEELIXOr 

111 the first place, the Danow Brothers, of Indianapolis, Ind., publish 
there, at 25 .Sentinel Building, the /r//(v/wcv/V Cizsc'/A-, an illustrated monthly 
magazine, at 50 cents a year. Originated at Springfield, Mass., by H. E. 
Ducker, in April, '83, the change of location and proprietorship was made in 
Julv, '87 ; and the new owners discontinued their weekly IVheelvieii's Record, 
which was published acceptably during the whole of "87 (see p. cii.), and trans- 
ferred its good-will to the Gazette in January. As this paper has always 
promptly printed everything I have ever written for it about the book, besides 
freely helping the sale of the same in other ways, I am specially glad to assist 
in getting subscribers for it. Its price to (ireat Britain and the British Colo- 
nies is doubled, on account of the postage rate. Any one writing to me from 
those countries, may enclose 4s. (p. o. o.) for a year's subscription or 2s. (in 
half-pennv stamps) for a half-year's, and the Gazette will be duly forwarded. If 
dny American correspondent asks me for a specimen copy, I will also send 
his request to Darrovv Brothers. They arrange to have the English weekly, 
IVkeeling, mailed from London to any one in the U. S. who will send them 
its regular price (S2 a year, or Si a half-year), and they give the Gazette as a 
premium. They offer liberal combination rates with several other cycling 
papers and with the popular journals. 

The chief exponent of the more progressive and liberal-minded section 
of British wheelmen, and leading independent organ of the trade, in opposi- 
tion to " the Coventry ring," is Wheeling, dated every Wednesday at 152 
Eleet St., London, E. C. Its annual rate to home subscribers is 6s. 6d. ; to 
those in the United States, S2; but Americans who subscribe through Dar- 
row Brothers, Indianapolis, will also receive the latter's IVheehneus Gazette 
as a monthly premium. A change in the proprietorship of Wheeling was 
effected Nov. 2, '87. Since then, the post of editor-in-chief has been held by 
C. W. Nairn (a writer on the London cycling press from its earliest days, 
and for several years in the employ of " the Coventry ring "), with W. Mc- 
Candlish as his chief assistant. 

The new proprietors of Wheeling continue towards me the liberal policy 
of its originator. If any one chooses to send them 8s. 8d. for my book, the 
amount is acknowledged in " Answers to Correspondents," and at sight of 
same I mail from New York the book to the indicated address. If any one 
sends 25 half-penny stamps for the special pamphlets " Curl " (28 pp. and 
photogravure) or " Castle Solitude "(56 pp. and wood cut), or for the sheets 
of any other chapter in the book, acknowledgment and dispatch follow in 
the same way. Names of supporters for " 2 X. M." may be enrolled in simi- 
lar fashion; and the present pamphlet of 130 pages will be mailed without 
charge to any one who asks me for it through the columns of Wheeling. 
These same pages are also bound in as an appendix to the two special pam- 
l^hlets, which are printed on heavy paper, tinted and calendered, and enclosed 
in olive-green covers. My etlition de luxe of book (on same heavy paper, 200 
only ])rinted) may be had by sending ids. to Wheeling, 152 Fleet St., London. 

T3 



SENDING SPECIMEN PAPERS. 

In the preface to his forthcoming pamphlet (if newspaper notices (which, 
as an example of purely personal say-so, I feel sure will be worth reading), 
K. K. endeavors to impress on the minds of its readers that he desires his 
hook to be judged solely as a business venture, not as a literary work; but he 
ipiite forgets that his reviewers, as a class, know even less of business than 
they know of literature or of cycling. He does not seem to bear in mind the 
fact that a large proportion of his critics know absolutely nothing of the sub- 
ject, and write criticisms at so much a column, just as thev would chop wood 
at so much a cord, quite careless of the size or shaiie of their chips, so they 
get paid for the work. — St. Louis Spectator. 

The Emerald Isle still boasts its two rival weeklies at Dublin : The Irish 
Cyclist &= Athlete, edited and published by R. J. & A. Mecredy, at 49 Middle 
Abbey St., with a very large advertising patronage, and the Irish Athletic &= 
Cycling A\i.us, whose editor and proprietor is R. J. Dunbar. I have never yet 
been favored with a copy of the latter paper, but I believe its price is the same 
as that of the older one, which is the same as the price of the English week- 
lies. If any American wishes to examine the /. C. 6^ A., I will mail him 
a copy freely, provided he so requests by postal-card, and agrees to send it 
back to me within a fortnight. The first issue of the Scotch Cyclist is an- 
nounced for March 7, 18S8, by May, Nisbit & Co., of Stockwell St., Glasgow, 
under the editorship of " /Eolus " and " Steersman," who have for a long time 
past contributed the cycling department of the Scottish Umpire, published l)y 
the same firm. Each paper is a weekly, price one penny. 

The Australian Cycling A'eivs (^owwA^A May 11, 1882) is under the editor- 
ship of F. J. Llewelyn, — having been revived Aug. 11, '87, — and is issued 
every alternate Thursday in Melbourne, at 5 Collins st, West. Its sub- 
scription rate per quarter is is. gd. for Victoria; 2s. for any other part of the 
world. I will send a specimen copy for the inspection of any American who 
may make the request by postal-card and will agree to remail the paper to 
me within a month (and I offer to mail specimens of Wheeling, on the same 
terms). If any one sends me a half-dollar for three months' subscription, I 
will forward the same to Australia without charge. In return for this offer, 
I assume the Editor will consent to account to me for any money his sub- 
scribers may wish accredited to me, through the News, just as Wheeling does. 

For 3000-7// //<? route of H. J. High, from Pennsylvania to Nebraska and hack ; 
for Thomas Stevens's route from San Francisco to Boston, with daily mileage 
(not giveti in his book), see "Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." 

Mailed to any province of Canada, for $2, by A. T. Lane, of 1421 St. Catherine St., Mon- 
treal; and. to any colony of Australia, for 8s. 8d., by W. J. Parry, of Wills st., Sandiiurst, 
Viet. Residents of Great Britain who send Ss. 8d. to the Publisher of " Wheeling," 152 
Fleet St., London, will find the same acknowledged in the " Ans. to Cor." column of that 
Wednesday weekly ; and their books will be mailed as soon as the orders thus printed arrive in 
N. Y. Purchasers who may prefer to deal directly with the Publisher (whether they reside in 
foreign countries or in the U. S.) should make all money-orders payable to him, " Karl 
Kron, at the University Building, Washington Square, New York City, D." 

M4 



FOR Fi'BLIC LIBRARIES. 

Tlie Publisher believes that whenever tlie chief of any public library in 
America can be persuaded to consider the evidence offered in this pamphlet, 
he will feel under strong compulsion to purchase the book which it advertises, 
as a standard work of reference in an interesting field entirely its own. 

I shall therefore be pleased to have any recipient of the pamphlet exhibit 
it to such local librarians as are known to him (on the chance of my not hav- 
ing mailed copies to them directly), and at the same time show the book it- 
self, — if he be the owner of a copy, — and recommend such points in it as 
seem to him to make it worthy of purchase for public use. In particular, I 
ask each "copartner," with whom I have ventured to deposit any extra cop- 
ies for possible sale, that he should take one to every library within easv 
reach, and (unless payment be made at sight) should persuade the librarian to 
sign an " approval " receipt, agreeing to examine the l)ook and accomjianving 
pamphlet within a month, and then, when the agent calls for his decision, to 
either pay him S- or hand back the book. 

I wish to assure all librarians that every such representative of mine acts 
entirely without pay or commission, — taking all his trouble for no other mo- 
tive than to help the spread of cycling, or to help reward me for my personal 
sacrihces in behalf of it. Except for winning the good-will of these unpaid 
assistants, and thus dispensing with the discounts and allowances needed for 
making sales through the book-stores, it would not be possible for me to 
offer the volume at less than half the rate naturally put upon so costly a one 
by ordinary conditions of the book trade. > 

Even after eliminating this great factor of exiiense caused by the com- 
missions and advertisements of middlemen, there still remains to me no pos- 
sibility of profit on the investment of Si2,ooo until after the first 6000 copies 
shall have been sold. Elsewhere in this pamphlet, the page entitled " Costs 
of Book-Making " shows that, at best, I shall have worked steadily for at 
least five years before I so much as begin to reaj) any reward on sales at the 
S2 rate. I have not delivered, and I shall not hereafter deliver, any copy to 
any bookseller for less than that; and, though I allow the rate of §1.75 to a 
bookseller who personally buys a copy at one of my agencies, the concession 
only covers his expense of delivering to a customer, and is too small to ad- 
mit of underselling. 

luich librarian who acknowledges the receipt of this pamphlet by send- 
ing me 3c for the book, may attach to such act the privilege of recalling the 
bargain at any time within a month. In other words. I agree to return the 
money, and a stamped label for mailing the book to a later purchaser, if the 
librarian notifies me that he is dissatisfied, and that he will thus re-mail the 
book in unsoiled condition. On the other hand, if preference be expressed 
for delaying payment until after acceptance of the book, I will deliver it "on 
approval" to any librarian who signs for me the application-form elsewhere 
printed in this pamphlet, after having erased the allusions to advance payment 
of 20 cents, and substituted S2 for Si.So as the amount of final payment. 

J? 



THE FIRST FIFTY. 

There are about 4000 public libraries iu the t'uited States, and the 
l)ook may be sold to at least half of them, if their managers can be made 
to see its true character, as a standard book of reference. Following is 
a list of 50 which alread)«iOwu the book, more than half of them being 
advance subscribers. When the name of the library differs from that of 
the town, it is appended iu parent liPsis. The star (*) is used iu twenty- 
two cases to sh w •v\iiere sales have been made by my agents, 
since publication dny : "-Alameda, Cal.; *Altooua, Pa. (Mechanics); 
Ann Arbor. IMich. (Psi I'psilou) : Baltimore. Md. (Pratt) ; Bangor 
^ie. : Bar Ha.bor. 3Ie. : "Belfast, .Me.; Bostou. Ms. (AtlieuiBum), 
(State); Bridgeport, Ct. ; Bristol. Pa. : Brooklyn, N. Y. : Bruns- 
wick. 3Ie. (^ Bo-wdoin College); "Buffalo, N. Y. : Cambridge, 
Ms. (Harvard College); *Canandaigua, X. Y.; Christchurch, New Zea- 
land; Detroit, ilich. ; *Dover, Del.; Easthamptou. Ms. (Adelphi); 
*Elyria, 0.; *Emporia. Kan.. *Fall River. Ms.: Fort Leavenworth, Kan. 
(Post); Gambler. O. (Kenyon College); *Gettysburg, Pa. (Penusj-lvauia 
College); Hanover, N. H. (Dartmouth College); *Harrisburg, Pa. (State); 
Irvingtou, Ind. (Butler University); London, Eng. (British Museum); 
*Macon, Ga.; Nashville, Tenn. (Y. M. C. A.); *Newburyport, Ms.; New 
Haven. Ct. (Yale College). (Liuouiun); *New York (Mercantile); Nor- 
walk. O. (Young Men's); *Omaha, Neb.; Peoria, 111.: *Provideuce, R. 
I.; *Sandhurst, Vict., Australia (^lechanics' Institute); *Sau Francisco, 
Cal. (Mercantile). (Mechanics'); *South Bethlehem. Pa. (Lehigh L'niver- 
sity); Springfield. Ms.; *Templeton, j\[s.: Warrnambool. Vict., Aus- 
tralia (Mechanics' Institute): Yv^ishiugton, D. C. (Congress); West 
Springfield, Ms.; Worcester. Ms. 

I repeat the request made upon another page, that an}' one who has 
any of my books deposited with him for sale, should show a specimen to 
the librarians of his locality, and should call their attention to the 
"points" of tlie present pamphlet, especially to this list of purchasing- 
libraries, representing twenty-two states. If Ihelibiarian will mt buy a 
copy outright, let him be at least persuaded to sign an "approval" 
blank (page 32) and give a month's examination. 

If it be granted that the perusal of such a book will tend to win con- 
verts to cycling, every helper of mine must see that he will do "the 
cause" more good by ensuring the public circulation of a copy than bj^ 
finding a private purrliaser for it. As the libraries are plainly assured 
that every such helper acts without hope of personal profit, they will be 
bound to treat him more graciously than if he were a mere hired book 
agent, trying to earn bis own salary. 

A librarian in Australia (of the Mechanics' Institute and Free Library, 
Stawell), writes ; '" 1 am greatly pleased at having bought ■ Ten Thousand 
Miles on a Bicycle,' f.">r it shows a thoroughness in its matter that is 
higld}' refreshing in these days of hurry and ' shamming '." 

O4 



EDITIOX DE LUXE. 

As regards niv special edition de luxe (on heavy paper, tinted and calen- 
dered ; onlv 200 copies printed), I can supply it in sheets at ?2, or in the reg- 
ular blue muslin binding at $2.25 per copy, but I reserve the right to advance 
the price without notice, as the remnant decrease9i(present stock : 150). Buy- 
ers of this edition who request the insertion of an autographed fly-leaf, like 
that given to original subscribers, will be supplied without charge. 

Librarians who may have procured the volume before receiving the pres- 
ent appeal will confer a favor by giving notice of that fact, as I desire to 
print a list of all public institutions where it may be consulted. To college 
librarians, in particular, I commend the remark of the Boston Advertiser, al- 
luding to the long historical and discursive "study in social science" (ad- 
dressed chiefly to college-bred men), that it and the other extraneous chapter 
" would be worth the price of all," even to readers little interested in bicycling. 

I also quote this undergraduate opinion from Princeton College : " Pub- 
lished in very attractive form, the usefulness of the work is greatly increased 
bv the presence of a wonderfully complete index, by means of which the 
reader may obtain information on any subject connected with cycling, without 
the slightest inconvenience. The book abounds in pleasing anecdotes and 
important facts ; and, although not written strictly for the general public, 
many parts of it will surely prove interesting." — The Prineetonian, A'. J. 

The Publisher has received so many proofs that the volume is acceptable 
to those whom it was issued for, that he believes very few mature wheelmen, 
who have curiosity enough to give it a careful e.\amination, will decline to 
contribute $2 towards the $60,000 needed for its success. Hence the offer is 
made to any prospective purchaser, in the United States or Canada, who can 
furnish suitable evidence of good-faith, to lend the volume a month for a 
tenth of its price, with privilege of paying the other nine-tenths then, or of 
returning it at a trivial cost which will make the whole outlay, for four weeks' 
reading, only a quarter of a dollar. [Sec ai)plication-forms on other pages.] 

Publishers of eatalognes and price-lists in the cycling trade, as -well as ful>- 
lishers of all books and pamphlets in regard to cycling, are invHed to insert therein 
the follo-u'ingfree adv., — on the theory that they 7C'ill help their C7cn business by 
helping the sale of such a volume : — 

TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE: "A Gazetteer of Ameri- 
can Koads in Many States ; an Encyclopedia of JVheeling Progress in Many 
Countries." Forty-one chapters ; 908 pages; 67 5,cxx) words ; bound in blue 
muslin, with gilded top. Mailed for $2 by Karl Kron, Washington Sq., N. Y. 
The main text of book comprises Soo pp. of 585,000 words, and the indexes cover 75 pp. of 
fine type,— the chief local-index giving S4 18 references to 34S2 towns, and the chief personal- 
index giving 3126 references to 1476 individuals. The frontispiece is a photogravure, and the 
appendix contains the names and addresses of 3400 subscribing " copartners." but no advertise- 
ments. Pubhcation was made May 25, 1887, after four years' continuous labor and a cash outlay 
of $6200. The mailing-price for Great Britain and .Australia is Ss. Sd., and money-orders from 
those countries may either be sent direct to New York, or to "the Publisher of H'/ueling, \^z 
Fleet St., London, Eng.," and " \V. J. Parrv. Wills st., Sandhurst, Vict." 



''FOUR YEARS AT YALE:' 

" FOUR YEARS AT VALl-:, by a Graduate of "69" {Karl Kroii). This 
is a hand-book of the student lite and customs prevailing, twent)- years ago, at 
the college named, and an encyclopasdic history of its undergraduates' societies 
and other " institutions," up to that date. It contains 72S pages of about 
220,000 words (long-primer type and tinted paper), has analytical catch-lines 
at the head of each chapter, is well indexed and neatly bound in cloth, and is 
mailed for $2.50 by the publishers, Henry Holt & Co., 29 East 23d St., N. Y. 
Originally published at New Haven in 1871, the edition of 1700 was exhausted 
in the course of a few years, e.xcept about too sets of sheets which, bv error 
of printer, lacked 72 pages. In 1881 these missing pages were put in tvpe 
again by the present publishers, and the copies thus completed have all been 
sold but four (March i, 1888), though I myself hold eight other sets of un- 
bound sheets, lacking only the dozen pages devoted to preface and contents- 
table. I offer these at $2.25 each, or I- will supply them bound (blue muslin 
and gilded top) at $2.50 each. One set of the eight, which is printed on one 
side of the paper only, is held at $3, as being unique in the entire edition of 
1700. I have also a few broken sets and odd chapters which I can suppl\- at 
proportionate rates to any collegiate antiquarians who may wish for them. 
As the book was type-printed, it will never be reissued; and to avoitl tlie 
trouble of writing answers to occasional inquirers I here publish this tinal 
statement concerning it. 

Humors of collegiate velocipediitg in I'idc), condensed from cotttemporarv rec- 
ords. See " Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle" ( Tlie chapter called " Bone- 
shaker Days" giving careful details of the evolution of the modern bicycle from the 
v€loce of '69 and its predecessor of 1819, "will be mailed separately for 25 cents.) 

The descriptions of the author's rides are sometimes amusing and thrill- 
ing. — St. Louis Post-Dispatch. There is a great deal of entertaining as well 
as instructive and useful reading in it. — The Boohniarl, Pittsburg, Pa. The 
author's adventures are graphically told. — Scientific America);. 

Many bright thoughts catch the eye even in a hasty perusal. — Wheelmen's 
Record, Lndianapolis. It contains very serviceable information for those 
interested in bicycle travel. — Alta California. It ought to become a sort of 
vade mecum to all lovers of bicycling. — The Sun, .V. Y. 

People who take long tours with horses will find it an excellent guitle. — 
Turf Field &■ Farm. Altogether indispensable to a man who desired to 
journey over the ground covered. — The Star, A'. Y. 

This is a notable book for many reasons, but chiefly, perhaps, in showing 
what tremendous perseverance and powers of application can reside in one 
man. As a dictionary of American roads, intended for reference and instruc- 
tion rather than amusement, all attempts at a literary style have been aban- 
doned, — the simplest statements of facts being imperatively necessary to crowd- 
such an enormous mass of matter into the required 800 pages. It isj without 
doubt, the most important cycling work ever written, and can hardly fail ofc 
being useful to thousands of bicvclists. — Yale Literary Magazine. 

U 



THE COSTS OF BOOK-MAKIXG. 

I desire to emphasize the fact that no publisher, relying upon ordinarv 
business conditions, could have been persuaded to invest the large sum 
requisite for bringing out so massive a work on such a subject. Mv original 
prospectus promised a much smaller and cheaper affair (one-third the num- 
ber of pages, and one-ninth the number of wortls), whose estimated cost of 
manufacture was only a quarter-dollar per copy ; yet the man of widest ex- 
perience in such matters offered this prediction about its chances : " I have 
been selling bicycling literature for nearly three years, and I know a little 
about the market. Let me say, then, frankly, that you cannot sell looo copies 
-of a bicycling work at $i each, no matter how good it is, nor how much it 
<;ommends itself. The market will not absorb that quantity of booUs. I 
place the outside limit of your sales at 300 copies, and I can't believe you will 
sell that number. No matter how much the bicyclers may howl for a thing, 
they fail to come to time when asked to pay for it." 

These words were written by the present Secretary-Editor of the League, 
at sight of an advance copy of my prospectus (Jan. 23, 1884; see p. 704), and, 
however absurd they may seem in the light of facts actually accomplished, 
they fairly reflected an intelligent business-view of the probabilities. 

Assuming, however, in the face of this most discouraging opinion of an 
exi)ert, that a publisher might nevertheless have been found sanguine enough 
to issue a book more than four times as costly and to hope the " outside limit 
of sales " would even then reach to nearly four times the specified 300 copies, — 
what would have been his best chances of financial reward .' I answer this bv 
saying that the cost of publishing my own book, if the edition had been limited 
to 1000 copies, would have been $3300 (or $3. 30 per copy); if limited to 3000 
copies, the cost would have been S4500 (or Si. 50 per copy) ; and that, even 
by taking the risk of so large a number as 6200 copies for the actual edition, 
1 could bring the average cost down no lower than $1 per copy, liut, as a 
publisher commonly rates the retail price of a book at almost four times the 
cost of manufacture, — in order to cover expenses of distribution, advertising, 
booksellers' commission, author's royalty, and his own profit on the invest- 
ment, — the prices per book would have been respectively §13 or S6 or $4, 
according as the assumed " sanguine publisher " based his calculation on 
editions of 1000 or 3000 or 6000 copies. 

My investment of more than S6000 in actual cash, and of four years' 
labor which, at a modest estimate, might have earned a similar sum, is a 
greater investment than any one else has ever risked in a book on any other 
sport; and my hope is that those who feel any pride and pleasure in the re- 
sult will work to help remove from me the implication of financial folly in 
taking so great a risk. Remembering that, as its actual writer and compiler, 
I am debarred from saving a word in praise of the literary quality of the 
volume on which, as publisher, my money is* staked, those who approve its 
qualitv shouKl be the more readv to proclaim their opinions, and give me 
.the chance to circulate the same at second hand. 

F3 



THE CHANCES OF PROFIT. 

These figures show how impossible it would have been for me to have 
"found any such publisher for any such bulky book. When an experienced 
dealer had declared " he could not believe 300 co])ies could be sold of a $\ 
bicycling book, no matter how good it is," no reasonably prudent publisher 
would dream of selling 1000 copies of a $13 book, — nor yet of selling the 
enormously greater number needctl to justify offering it at a much lower rate. 
The figures show, too, that, even if (at tlie end of 1887, after four full years 
devoted exclusively to the work) 1 had received the regular $2 price for every 
book of the first 6000, I should still have reaped much less profit, despite all 
my risk of capital, than migiit have been had without risk, from much easier 
employment, at $1500 a year. But the real fact is much less favorable than 
this, for nearly half the 6000 books will be distributed among my subscribers 
at the promised half-rate, while at least the whole year 1888 will be required 
for finding §2 buyers of the remainder ; and the costs of distribution and 
advertising will be considerable. Assuming thus that this great number of 
books are all disposed of on these terms, within five years after the " pros- 
pectus of Dec. 3, 1883," I shall still be considerably out-of-pocket on the 
adventure. By as much as the time of selling maybe prolonged beyond that, 
by so much will my losses Idc increased. Assuming, as many did, that the 
payment of five-sixths of my 3600 subscriptions at %i each would mark the 
outside limits of my receipts (leaving 3000 unsalable books on my hands as 
a dead loss), each "copartner's " copy would have cost me more than four 
times what he paid for it ! 

Future editions of the book, however, can be made at a cost of about 6a 
cents per copy ; and a sale of 24,000 of them, even at the low rate of S2, would 
offset the losses on the first edition, and yield a fair profit on the whole in- 
Testment ; but so enormous a circulation can only be secured by the hearty 
co-operation of all those enthusiasts who favor it as a help to the spread of 
cycling. Having shown why a prudent publisher would not dare to issue so 
massive a work, and why even an imprudently sanguine publisher would not 
dare to put a less price than $5 upon it, I hojie my own motive in risking 
a popular rate like $2, may be poiiularly appreciated. Those who wish to see 
the risk justified by a phenomenal result, giving greater vogue to tlie book 
than to the representative volume of any other sport, should persuade their 
friends to send its price to the publisher, Karl Kron, (/////(■ University BuHd- 
iug, IVashingion Square^ A t'w York City, D. 



He is a man whom we all know, and ought to honor and help for the 
good work he has done for us. His book is a wonderful production. It is 
only occasionally that you find a man who has perseverance mingled with the 
milk of human kindness in generous enough measure to enable him to devote 
years of patient labor to such an undertaking. Remember that Karl has 
Avorked hard for us, boys, and do something for him. — " Gentleman John" in 
Bicycling World, Boston. 

G3 



THE POLICY OF HOXESTY. 

"The people like to be deceived; therefore let ihem be deceived:" that 
is the rule which politicians who court personal popularity rely upon to-dav 
as generally as in the old Roman days ; and that is the rule whose observance 
has built up numerous fortunes for publishers and other business men. 

There is, then, a certain intellectual interest attaching to this present ex- 
periment of attracting a vast multitude of buyers by a rigid adherence to the 
opposite policy, — by assuming their capacity to recognize and appreciate 
thoroughlv honest work, and their disposition to reward it fairly. The great 
bulk of testimony collected in the preceding pages is to the effect that the 
work has been well and squarely done, — that every promise concerning it has 
been fully and faithfully kept ; but the opinion is expressed or implied by 
manv of these witnesses, and by many other correspondents in private, that no 
adequate reward is likely to result, because the peoj^le for whom the work 
has been done are too few in number, or too ignorant and dull-witted, or too 
poor and penurious, to readilv pay for it. In other words, the belief prevails- 
that, however much thev mav be pleased by the magnitude and expensiveness 
of the show, thev will not contribute the gate-monev needed for its success,, 
but will preferably scale the fence, or crawl under the canvas guards at the 
bottom, or peep through holes furtively cut in the boards. 

CURL, THE BEST OF BULL-DOGS: a Study in Animal Life, 
Twent3-eight pages of 14,000 words, with photogravure frontispiece ; appen- 
dix of 152 pages giving specimens of the text and newspaper notices of "Ten 
Thousand Miles on a Bicycle.'' Sent postpaid to any country in the world, on 
receipt of 25 cents' worth of the lowest denomination of postage-stamps locally 
current. Karl Kron, Publislur, at the University Bitildiiis;, X. Y. City. 

CASTLE SOLITUDE IN THE METROPOLIS: ,/ Study in Soeiat 
Science. Fiftv-six pages of 34.000 words, with small picture of the Castle :. 
appendix of 152 pages, the same as the above. Sent to any address for 25 c, 
in postage stamps. 

I repeat below, from the page which contains the full prospectus of 
" My Second Ten Thousand," the application-form, which will ensure to a 
bookseller — the same as to any one else — the chance of buying the volume 
" at the usual })}, per cent, off," in case it is ever published. The act of sign- 
ing does not bind a person to buy the book at any price; it merely binds the 
Publisher to give a month's option of buying it at two-thirds the retail rate : 

/ hereby authorize Karl Kron to print my name in the list of supporters 
cf his proposed second book (to be called " /]/)' Second Ten Thousand" containim; 
not less than 300 passes of large type, 7vith at least 250 words to the page, aiui retail- 
ing at $1.50) ; and I agree that, if at any future time I receive notice from him 
that such a book has been published, I 7vill reply 'loithin a month, and either en- 
close a dollar to pay for a copy, orelse gr:v notice that I resign the prrz'ilege (whic'i 
A'. K". ensures to me in return for t/ie present pledge) of securing one from him at 
tivo-thirds the regular rate. 

[Name, address, date and occupation to be plainly written belcw. Prepay by a 2-cent stamp. J 

K4 



THE THEORY OF RECIPROCATION. 

As my book is a more extensive and expensive " free adv." of the whole 
cycling trade than any one else has ever produced, I urge that the chief firms 
in that trade, who advertise largely in the trade-journals, ought to follow the 
liberal example set them by the leading bicycle importer of Montreal, A. T. 
Lane, in the Canadian ]Vliecltnan. I mean that, as a part of every such full- 
page adv. of their own, they ought to insert a recommendation of " Ten Thous. 
Miles on a Bi." .A. short notice of this sort, in fine type, would detract not at all 
from the force of their own "dis])layed " remarks, and would add nothing to 
the cost of the page ; while, if it helped the circulation of the book, it would 
to that extent enlarge the number of customers who support the cycling trade. 
I do not anticipate that many of the chief advertisers in the trade-papers will 
be sagacious and liberal-minded enough to thus exhibit an appreciation of the 
four years' labor and $6000 of hard cash which I have expended for the sake 
of putting money in their pockets; but I nevertheless now place on record 
this appeal to their "intelligent selfishness," as plainly showing how easily 
they might repay some slight portion of their great indebtedness to me, — not 
onlv without spending a cent of money, but with a chance of positive profit to 
themselves. 

Elsewhere in this pamphlet a i^age is devoted to the free advertisement 
of the American cycling press, and to urging that every publisher of a trade 
catalogue ought to freely insert therein the names, prices and jiublishers' ad- 
dresses not only of these papers but of all cycling books and ]iamphlets in 
the market. I myself devote still other pages to the latter, in addition to 
the liberal space given them in my hook ; and I hope this policy of recipro- 
cation and "enlightened selfishness " — based upon the belief that "the sale of 
every such book heljis rather than hinders the sale of all the others" (see pp. 
652, 718) — may finally have general vogue. 

I agree to forward, without charge or commission, any money which a 
patron of mine may find it convenient to address to any one of them through 
me; but there are several whom I specify bv name, because, as they agree to 
freely account to me for money received for my books, I can have cash orders 
credited by them without any actual transfer of the cash. 

If I thus seem to show special favors to some^ it is only as an incident 
in my general policy of giving as much help as possible to all ])ublishers of 
cycling books and papers. The system may be called " free," in that it involves 
no payments of money and no making of contracts ; but it is in fact a system 
of informal exchanges, and is just as legitimate as a hard-and-fast agreement. 

Quite aside from the practical consideration of their possible value to 
me as aids to advertising, I wish to say that all subscribers' testimonials of 
their appreciation of the book's " points," and of their friendly interest in 
helping its financial success, are acceptable to me as aids towards keeping 
up my spirits during the long years of solitary labor which must be endured 
in winning such success. I put every letter on file, no matter how short it 
may be ; and I read every one with care and interest, no matter how long. 



THE SIGNIFICANCE OF '• TALKING MONEYS 

I wish to clearly remind my subscribers that, of the 60 millions of peo- 
l)le in this country, 55 millions do not yet know of the existence of the bicy- 
cle; and that, of these 5 millions who do in some measure comprehend that 
this new sort of vehicle has been added to previously-known instruments of 
locomotion, there are not a half-million wlio have any genuine apjireciation 
of it, or believe that it has " come to stay." These truths are seldom thought 
of by bicyclers, who, though their numbers in America are now probably well 
beyond 60,000, are apt to forget that their fewness, in comparison to 60,000,000, 
makes them seem socially insignificant, if not contemptible. 

The same strong sympathy in the sport, which causes them to talk and 
write so much to each other, and to print so many things about each other, 
blinds them to the truth that the great mass of the population are unconscious 
of their existence, and that almost all the rest either regard them with a mild 
surt of derision or with entire indifference. Hence it happens that my own 
act in risking such a sum as $12,000, on an appeal to the liberality and intelli- 
gence of such a trivial and inconsequential set of people (as commonly re- 
garded), exposes me to ridicule. " It is the work of an idiot, not of a sane 
man," says the reviewer of the Boston Herald ; and others, whose words are 
more civil, evidently think my talk about " selling 30,000 books " is too absurd 
for serious treatment. I am ignorant of the origin of the commonly accepted 
statement that a great majority of all the books i^ublished never reach a sale 
of 1000 copies ; but I presume it is correct, for I know that the sale of an 
even smaller number often sufifices for a volume whose literary success is 
recognized. I therefore appreciate how hard it is for "literary men," familiar 
with these cold facts, to believe I am in earnest in attempting to find "30,000 
l)uyers " among a very obscure and restricted clicntile. I recall the prediction 
of a most experienced dealer, that I " could not sell 300 copies of a bicycling 
book at $1, no matter how good it might be"; and I place alongside it the 
sarcasm of a learned friend of mine, Professor of English Literature in a well 
known university, that I was wasting my best energies on a necessarily vain 
a])peal to "the distinctively illiterate classes." 

Now-, as an offset to the weariness of contemplating all these adverse 
opinions, I like to receive wheelmen's assurances that I made no mistake in 
rating their character and influence more highly than the general run of ]ieo- 
ple rate them, and in testifying to that belief by "talking money " for their 
advancement. More than enough sales for the " literary " justification of 
the book were assured in advance; but the number needed to justify it finan- 
cially must be monumental. An army of 30,000 buyers, enlisted directly by 
the Publisher and his copartners, without any help from the ordinary ma- 
chinery of the book trade, would form too impressive a phenomenon "to be 
sneezed at." No sophistry could belittle its significance, as testifying to a 
"certain something " that characterizes no other sport than cycling. Plach 
subscriber's expressed belief in the sport, and in my scheme for proclaiming 
it, helps strengthen mv own belief in the scheme's final success. 

S3 



A TEST OF EXDURAA'CE. 

As it is well known to booksellers that " the average man," when he- 
happens to be interested in a particular book, will resort to almost an^- 
trick or subterfuge for getting the benefit of its contents without actually I'ln- 
Z//^'- a copy, they necessarily look with derision upon any attempt at persuad- 
ing bicyclers to proclaim themselves " better than the average " by putting up 
a testimonial of $60,000 in honor of the book which distinctively rejiresents 
them before the outside world. No such large sum of money could possibly 
be collected in behalf of the literary exponent of any other sport ; and there- 
fore my belief, that so monumental a pile can be raised by an appeal to the 
exceptional enthusiasm which characterizes bicycling, appears unreasonable to 
all who are not themselves enthusiasts. 

Large as the pile seems, however, when looked at in a lump, the projior- 
tion of profit accruing to me must be small at best. Five years will have 
l^een spent before I really begin my chase for buyers, and at least ten more 
will be needed for capturing them ; probably twenty years, possibly thirty. 
The collection of $60,000 through any such long period, on sales of a book at 
less than half its natural price, clearly offers but slight reward; yet no other 
compensation can come to me, for those vanities which are usually classed 
among the " rewards of authorship " are sedulously shunned by mvself. 1 
indulge in none of the things which are supposed to cheer the existence of 
people who are known as " cycling celebrities." Though advertising with 
tireless persistency the personal trade-mark under which I must needs puslr 
tlie scheme along, my own name and face are studiously concealed. From 
the day when my book's prospectus was issued, I have never once showji 
myself at any wheelnien-'s meet or parade or banquet or celebration of an} 
sort. I have competed not at all for the pleasures of notoriety and leader- 
ship enjoyed on such occasions by other men, but have maintained to the ut- 
most my personal modesty and reserve; and I shall adhere to this policy of 
non-interference so long as any of the 30,000 books remain unsold. 

I assume that the act of selling them will have a certain interest on its 
own account, throughout the cycling world, as a mere test of physique. 
The analogy which I ventured to draw (two years ago, when writing page 
483) between my own simple struggle to " push a book around the world," 
and Stevens's marvelous exploit in thus pushing a bicycle, seems somewhat 
less fanciful now than fien. The fact of his conquering the perils which 
were then ahead of him, and were clearly recognized as desperate ones, is 
acceptable as an omen for my also " getting through " the obstacles which 
arc now ahead of me, and are generally looked upon as insuperable. There 
is something significant, too, in the circumstance that he is the only man 
who has publiclv professed confidence in my ability to "get through " (/. c, 
to sell the 30,000 books); for, though he understands the difficulties of the. 
bjok-business quite as well as do those doubters who laugh at my assurance^ 
he has proved in his own person the power of Sam Patch's inspiring motto:. 
" Some things can be done as well as others." 

G4 



A STRAIGHT COURSE TO THE END. 

"All things are possible to the man who can afford to wait," — that is, the 
man who has vitality enough to " hang on " until the end, — and all peojile 
like to watch hiiu while undergoing this test as to whether there is enough 
of this stuff in him or not. Every man's final act, when recognized as such, 
arouses some degree of sympathetic curiosity merely because it is his last. 

Chapter 38 may be consulted by any one who wishes to be convinced that 
the web of circumstances behind me has been woven too skillfully, by a per- 
verse Fate, to allow any loo]>hi)le for my escape except by going ahead. On 
pages 724-725, in particular, the truth is clearly shown that, having become 
liuis involved, against my wishes, in a scheme far beyond my ambition if not 
beyond my strength, the stress of inevitable necessity will push me on to ex- 
pend the last atom of my strength in "getting through." Though my advance 
mav seem to be "without haste," it is bound to be "without rest." How- 
ever long I may live, it is not possible that I should turn back, or shoukl at- 
tempt anv other career. I must either finish this or it will finish me. Tliere 
i< no third choice. 

The issue of the present pamphlet signalizes the definite beginning of my 
voyage as a bookseller ; and, whether it be short or long, pros])erous or dis- 
astrous, successful or fatal, it can end in only one way. My prow points clear 
around the world, and it will never get home again unless it gets around ! 
When thus I make the start, almost e.xactly five years will have elapsed from 
the day when I conceived the idea of the book (April 19, 1883; see p. 702); 
and during more than four of these years I have worked assiduously at " get- 
ting readv." It took almost ten months to formulate and proclaim the pro- 
spectus ; it took seventeen months to attract the " impossible " 3000 co- 
l^artners from every quarter of the globe ; it took two years to compile, print 
and publish the actual book, and it has taken ten months more to distribute 
the same among my copartners and erect the present machine for attracting 
the 30,000 buyers. 

That this advertising pamphlet should itself contain more print than the 
"300 pages of 75,000 words" first promised for the book, is an impressive 
]noof of how the latter's scope increased from a pocket-guide, whose sale 
would be made and forgotten in a summer, to a bulky encyclopaedia, whose 
sale seems prospectively a life-long task. Yet the ever-growing expense and 
anxiety caused, through all these wearisome years, by this unforeseen expan- 
sion, did not have power to make me swerve at all from the plain path I had 
imdertaken to pursue as a publisher; and so now, when I finally begin my 
voyage as a bookseller, mv copartners may rest assured that, whether they 
help me much or little, I shall at least steer a straight course to the end. 
Adopting the famous speech of Seneca's pilot (made newly classic by Mr. 
Lowell's famous application of it at the celebration of Harvard's quarter- 
millennial), I simply say: " O, Neptune, save me if you will, or sink me if 
vou will ; but, whatever you do, I will keep my rudder true." 
Washington Square, N. Y., March 29, i8Ss. 

H4 



CURL, 



THE BEST OF BULL-DOGS 



A STUDY IN ANIMAL LIFE 



By KARL KRON 

Author of "Four Years at Yale, by a Graduate of '69 " 



PRICE, TWENTY-FIVE CENTS, POSTPAID 



Copyrighted, 18S4, as a Chapter in "Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle" 



PUBLISHED BY KARL KRON 

THE UNIVERSITY BUILDING, WASHINGTON SQUARE 

NEW YORK 



It 
(E) 



^<I EMORY 



Mn 13ulU©org 



(THE %"£«%• BEST DOG WHOSE PRESENXE EVER BLESSED THIS PLANET) 



THESE RECORDS OF TRAVELS 



WHICH WOl'LD HAVE BROKEN HIS HEART 



HAD HE EVER LIVED TO 



READ ABOUT 



ARE LOVINGLY INSCRIBED 



Copyrighted. 18S4, Muiuftctund. 18^7, 

B; BlxlT gTasntu, B; the SFiixiiriiLD Pinmna Com 

TowaDdA, PeDO. Sphogfleld, llus. 



ADVERTISKMENT, 

Artemus Ward's aphorism, " It isn't a bad idea for a comic paper to 
print a joke, once in a while," seems unfamiliar to the men who, since his 
day, have grown to the dignity of writing literary reviews for the newspaper 
press. At all events, several of them who have awarded the highest ])raise to 
my bull-dog's biography, as the most readable and best written chapter in an 
elaborate gazetteer of American roads, censure me for printing it there. One 
objects to the act as " a piece of egotism"; another says " its entire freedom 
from the all-pervading e^o makes the egotism and nonsense of the other chap- 
ters all the more inexcusable and exasperating"; but both these opposite- 
minded critics agree with each other, and with many others, in disapproval of 
the act, as incongruous and out of place, while they at the same time call the 
chapter " capital in itself " and " in every way perfect." 

The Preface of " Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle " in defending the 
precise, personal style of narrative as best suited for the special purpose in 
hand, asserts that this '* egotism" has not been dragged in for the sake of 
display or vaunting, but is simply a business necessity for the successful carry- 
ing out of a unique scheme of publication and sale. "There is, indeed, no 
boastfulness in this book, and precious little vanity," says the Preface ; and 
the most censorious of its many reviewers have not attempted to disprove this 
quite comprehensive assertion. 

The one vanity of the book was the author's decision to insert, as its 
chief "literary" feature, a biography of the best-remembered companion of 
his boyhood, in order thereby to make a most impressive appeal from the 
judgment of the select circle of magazine-editors who had condemned it, to 
the judgment of the mass of mankind, as represented by his thirty-four hun- 
dred "copartners," enrolled in every section of the globe. For an utterly 
unknown writer to thus have won in advance the attention of a vaster and 
more widely-scattered audience than many of the most famous of contemporary 
authors can lay claim to, was a unique opportunity, whose temptation I felt 
powerless to resist. Evidently, in trying my luck at so phenomenal a chance, 
I had much to gain from success, and little to lose from failure. If my 
"study in animal life" proved pleasing to the multitude of patrons whose 
sympathy with my enthusiasm for bicycling had led them to pledge their dol- 
lars for the building of a monumental book upon that subject, they would like 
the book all the better on "Curl's " account, and would give his memory also 
a monumental degree of celebrity. On the other hand, if his biography proved 
powerless to interest them, they would pardon the insertion of it, as a harm- 
less freak, in consideration of its covering but nineteen of nine hundred pages 
in a book whose bulk had been promised them as three hundred pages only. 

O2 



ADVERTISEMENT OF ''CURL?' 

The " Compliments for ' Curl,' " elsewhere reprinted, seem numerous 
and diversified enough to prove that my own advance-judgment, attributing 
more literary merit to the sketch than to anything else in the volume, was, 
though " necessarily partial," by no means erroneous in fact. I disagree 
with the man who said, in writing the biography of a departed friend and 
fellow-poet, " the eye of affection, if it be not critical, is at least clear-sighted " ; 
for there are abundant examples to the contrary; but I think the remark has 
been proved a truthful one as regards my own connection with this biography 
of "Curl." 

It was a work of entire affection, — a sort of duty which I had felt for 
years I was somehow bound to do; — and, when I had finished it, the work 
seemed to me not only the best that my pen had ever produced, but the best 
it was capable of ever producing. To my own consciousness, it was a superla- 
tive achievement, — a bright, consummate flower of verbal expression, — such 
as I might not expect to duplicate, and such as I could always take pleasure 
in, because of its power to vividly remind me of happy days gone by. 
Whether a sketch so personal to myself would also have power to amuse out- 
siders, by reason of its intrinsic excellence, was an entirely different matter ; 
and the unanimous rejection of it by a dozen magazine-editors might natu- 
rally appear to anticipate a popular verdict to the contrary, in case I appealed 
from those editors to the public. As my audacity in courting a popular ver- 
dict, under such adverse circumstances, was a genuine piece of vanity, so the 
success which has followed and justified it is a genuine gratification. There 
is something specially pleasant about this evidence that the element of affec- 
tion did not impair my clear-sightedness, — that the " personal equation " did 
not sway my judgment, — that what seemed to me my most attractive piece of 
verbal workmanship has been commended by the severest judges as in fact 
my best. 

I do not presume to say that " my best " should be classed as " good," 
according to any absolute standard of excellence, or that the public verdict 
already given in favor of this brief biography proves that it contains anything 
of that permanent quality which should entitle it to rank as literature. I only 
record the fact that I have accomplished exactly what I set out to do, four 
years ago, by making my bull-dog's memory cherished in every country of the 
globe where the English language is spoken. With this aim in view, I gave 
seventeen months to the attraction of three thousand subscribers to my bicy- 
cling book, from every State and Territory of the Union, every province of 
Canada, every colony of Australia; from England, Scotland and Ireland; 
from Mexico, Bermuda and New Zealand ; from a dozen countries of Con- 
tinental Europe ; from Asiatic Turkey, Persia and Japan. Having thus labo- 
riously secured my audience, I was not to be deterred from my purpose of 
winning their approval for " Curl" because none of the magazine-editors took 
kindly to him ; and, having won that approval, I can now confidently intro- 
duce him to the general public as the most distinguished dog of his day. 

P2 



ADVERTISEMENT OF ''CURW 

I say " confidently " because, whatever may be thought of his merits as 
a dog, or my own as a dog's biographer and general advertising-agent, no one 
can accuse me of absurdity as a business-man in now assuming that a certain 
number of people will be glad to buy this pamphlet containing the story of 
his life and times. To have issued it as an independent work, after proof 
that all the magazines thought it worthless, would have been a silly act of 
vanity; to publish it now and circulate it as a help to the capture of the 
needed 30,000 buyers of "Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle" is simply a 
matter of business. As the capture of these 30,000 seems destined to be the 
chief and final business-act of my life, it is not inappropriate that my best and 
final literary-act should be kept prominently identified with it. 

Despite the plainest proclamations of its Preface, reviewers of my book 
have almost unanimously ignored this "business " side of it, and many have 
spoken as if its ideal were a confessedly " literary " one, like that of a novel 
or poem. Almost none have seemed to accept as serious my expressed in- 
tention of securing 30,000 buyers for the book by an appeal to the good-will 
and friendliness of my 3000 subscribers ; for, if the theory be once granted 
that I can count on their sympathy as fellow-bicyclers, no one can allege that 
there is any absurdity in attempting to increase that sympathy by revealing 
to them the amusing traits of my bull-dog, and the queer characteristics of 
the house which I live in. Furthermore, it is fair to presume that their readi- 
ness to recognize and reward me as their representative spokesman, will be 
all the greater because of my proving to the public that I ca7i write intelli- 
gently on subjects of more general interest than bicycling. Since my en- 
deavor to produce a standard work in this special field has necessarily led to 
the " patient treating of small things as if they were large," — in accordance with 
the Emersonian doctrine that " no man can do any work well who does not 
regard it, for the time being, as the center of the universe," — it is surely right 
for me to show that my vision for " small things " is not really distorted. 

When I undertook the preparation of that massive encyclopgedia, I did 
not anticipate that I was dooming myself to " four years' solitary confinement 
at hard labor " ; but I did foresee that, no matter how loudly I might pro- 
claim the special and restricted ideal of the book, some reviewers would 
accredit it with a general" literary " ideal and would condemn it accordingly. 
Hence, though my statistical guide to roads and riding might not be judged 
quite as dismal reading as the professedly comic papers of a quarter-century 
ago, when Artemus Ward was editor of Vanity Fair, it seemed, "not a bad 
idea to insert a readable chapter, once in a while." The most readable one 
was the life of " Curl," and it puzzles me to imagine why critics who praised 
it thus should still think its insertion a bad idea. Among people who like 
dogs (and no respect need be paid to the literary standards of such human 
animals as hate them), a good dog story, like the motion to adjourn, is 
"always in order." THE PUBLISHER. 

Washington Square, N. V., Jan. 24, 1888. 

Q2 



COMPLIMENTS FOR " CURW 

The queerest book that has come into this office for a long while is "Ten 
Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." It would be as dull, prosaic and borous as 
the author has aimed to make it, if he had been able to live up to his ideal. 
Luckily, he couldn't. His individuality has asserted itself. He himself has 
crowded in (among the three-cornered stones, the up-grades, and the pauses 
to oil the machine), and some of his literary excursions are exquisite. " Curl," 
the dog to whom the book is dedicated, is the title of a sketch of the animal 
that is simply delicious. A cleverer, more delicately humorous, or more 
thoroughly intelligent study of a brute has seldom been written. If we fail 
to like the animal, it is because we see his true character ; but, be the dog 
good or bad, no one can fail to enjoy reading of his experiences and noting 
how he revealed his character in his life and walks — as we all do. There are 
other readable chapters, and the book has literary merit of rare quality, in 
spots. It seems incredible that the author should have had " Curl " rejected 
by every prominent magazine, but that is what he says. — Hartford Conrant. 

We have read the biography of " Curl," the bull-dog, with a great deal 
of interest, though we do not wonder that a dozen magazine editors refused 
to print it. — Z. A. W. Bulletin, Boston. 

There is a vast deal of thi^ book that is of interest to the general reader 
as much as to the bicycler. The chapter on " Curl " is especially interesting 
for the picture it presents of a remarkably intelligent and affectionate ani- 
mal. A brief extract will show what kind of a dog he was, and at the same 
time give an idea of the author's admirable style. — Detroit Free Press. 

One of the most interesting chapters is that on the life of the author's 
pet bull-dog; and a good photogravure of "Curl" forms the frontispiece. — 
Worcester Spy, 

Whether the dedication of such a work to a favorite bull-dog, "not lost 
but gone before," may be thought congruous, we leave to be settled by de- 
baters on "good form"; but, judging by "the best of bull-dogs'" eighteen- 
page biography, as genially related by the author, we should say " Curl " is 
entitled to affectionate remembrance. — T/ie Evening Telegram, A'. V. 

Some chapters are very good reading for anybody. His bull-dog re- 
ceives a long one, the most interesting in the book. This animal was almost 
the intellectual equal of the famous "Calvin." — Buffalo Express. 

The frontispiece illustration is not that of the author, as a hasty inspec- 
tion of the book might possibly suggest, but is a likeness of the author's 
companion. "Curl" was a bull-dog who lived not quite thirteen years. His 
biography is written in Chapter 28 of this remarkable encyclopaedia. The 
dedication is inscribed to this friendly fellow animal. — The Critic, N'. Y. 

The general opinion of Karl Kron's book seems to be that when it comes 
to dogs he can write very intelligently and sympathetically, but outside of 
that one chapter the work is a dismal failure. — American Athlete, Philadelphia. 

(I). 



COMPLIMENTS FOR " CURW 

The work is dedicated " To the Memory of My Bull-Dorg," and the 
portrait of " Curl " is really a work of art. — A^ew Zealand Referee. 

The frontispiece is the picture of a dog, — not a soft-eyed lap-pet that 
runs off into the brush at the sight of a wheel, but a big-jawed, fierce-looking 
bull-dog, that has got the pedal-motion down so fine that he can time the 
descending feet to a dot, and nip out a piece of $3 hose at every revolution. 
There used to be two such dogs, out on the Manchester road, several years 
ago. — St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 

The one good chapter is that in which he commemorates a deceased bull- 
dog named " Curl," who after playing the part of Cerberus on the ancestral 
farm where his master was born and bred, for ten or a dozen years, dropped 
his last bone eighteen winters ago, and joined the great majority of faithful 
dogs in the Canine Paradise, where (let us hope) they snarl not, and bite not, 
and are never more hungry. That he was a determined creature may be 
gathered from the sketch of his life, and that he was not ill-looking, from the 
bull-dog standpoint, may be seen by his portrait, which stands by way of 
frontispiece to " Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle." — Mail and Express, A'. Y. 

For absolute stupidity, even to bicyclers, this volume must take the prize 
as being one of the most worthless volumes ever written. It is the work of 
an idiot, not of a sane man. The only sign of common sense is shown in 
the beautiful portrait of Karl Kron's favorite bull-dog, to whose memory the 
book is aptly dedicated. — Boston Herald. 

His Bull-Dorg will, I am confident, occupy a prominent position in the 
history of the cycle. I would we had an English Kron. — "The Tyre" in 
Saturday Alight, Birmingham, Eng. 

What makes this egotism all the more inexcusable is that the author can 
write well, and can on occasion drop the all-pervading ego, as, for example, in 
the biography of his bull-dog, which, though sadly out of place in " a gazet- 
teer, a dictionary and a thesaurus of facts," is the one green spot in the desert 
of flat, uninteresting, and very personal detail. The chapter on " Curl " is, 
in our view, at once the triumph and the condemnation of this book. That a 
man who can write such a biography as this — in every way perfect — can then 
coolly and deliberately bury it in the indigestible mass of verbiage, egotism 
and nonsense in which we find it, is simply exasperating, and at the same time 
extraordinary. What this gem has to do with cycling it is difficult to dis- 
cover, but those condemned for their sins to peruse this work will welcome 
the restful pause which it affords. "Castle Solitude" belongs to the same 
category as "Curl's" biography, though of less merit, as being more labored 
and artificial. These two chapters are like the much-quoted flies in amber, 

with a modification : — 

"neither rich nor rare. 

One only wonders ' how the devil they got there.' " 

— Bicycling JVe^vs, London organ of "the Coventry ring." 
(K) 



INDEX TO THE LIFE OF '-CC/RL." 

Page. 

Origin, Characteristics and Environment i 

The Gentlest of Hearts beneath a Fierce Exterior 2 

Personal Appearances and "Points." 3 

General Impression made upon Strangers, as Portrayed by 

the Poet of " Puck." 3 

Leaping through the Window-glass, with the Cry of "Out! 

Damned Spot! " 4 

Relations with Black Jack, Ostensible and Secret 4-5 

The Garden P^ence as a Pretended Barrier for Bravery... 5 

Verses of Honor for "the Outside Dog in the Fight." 6 

Ruffianism towards a Pair of Canine Weaklings 6 

Ears Sensitive to Bell-ringing 7 

The Fatal Fascination of Fireworks 7 

Conventional Resentment Assumed for Certain Noises and 

Movements 7-8 

Winter Sport with Snow-caves, Sledding and Skating 8 

Hatred of Boating and Swimming g 

A Furtive Drinker 9 

Assumption of Dignified Indifference towards the Cats... to 

Tricks in Food-taking 10 

Demand for the Front Seat in Every Vehicle 11 

Exploits as a Fence-jumper and Hen-chaser 12 

Troubles as a Fly-catcher and Candy-eater, 12 

Victorious over the Woodchuck but Vanquished by the 

Bumble-bees 12 

Abashed by the Elephant 12 

The Wicked Flea 13 

"Circling" as a Conventional Diversion 13 

Religious Rites with the Saw-horse 13 

A Fetich of Wonderful Power 14 

Canine Asceticism Gratified by Head-bumping 15 

Birth and Name 15 

Politically a " War Democrat " in the Stirring Times of '6i. 16 

Rare Lapses from Virtue's Path 16 

Health and Strength Impaired by Poison 16 

Dislike of Mirrors and Bed-chambers 423 

Outward Signs of Seeing Phantasms and Visions in Sleep.. 423 

Deliberateness of Retiring for the Night 423-4 

Waning Prestige a Token of Old Age 424 

Refusal to Tarry in a World Which Might Give Greater 

Esteem to " Cycling " than to " Circling." 424 

Exceptional Toleration for the Poor Creature Who was 

Fated to Attend Him on the Final Night 425 

Dead, at the Post of Honor 425 



TABLE OK CONTENTS. 

DEDICATION, ii. : To Curl, the Best of BuII-Dogs (b. July 4, 1S56 ; d. Jan. 24, 1S69). 

PREFACE, iii.-viii. : Scope of the volume, iii. AssuJiiptious for a special class of trav- 
elers, iii. Fair warnings for " the general reader,'' iii. Attempts at verbal attractiveness, iii. 
Amusement and instruction for non-cyclers, iv. Simplicity of literary ideal, iv. The bicycle's 
slowness its charm for the elderly, iv. Q.iiat tourists (not showy racers) the true " knights of 
the wheel," v. The plain story of an average man, v. Scientitic and unobtrusive egotism, v. 
An autobiography between the lines, vi. Praise not sought for, but money, vi. Unique power 
of the cycling enthnsiasm, vi. The selling of 30,000 books less notable than the pledging of 3000 
subscribers, vii. Business necessity of my personal revelations, vii. Typography and proof- 
reading, viii. Imperfection of the indexes, vlii. Suggestions for reviewers, viii. Three hopes 
for the future, viii. (Electro, in Oct., '86, except p. viii. Contains about 5000 words. See p. 710.) 

TAl'.LE OF CONTENTS, ix.-xx. : Titles of the forty-one chapters, with 857 descrip- 
tive headlines for their principal paragraphs. (Electrotyped in Feb., '87 ; about 10,000 words.) 

GENERAL INDEX, xxi.-xxxiv. : Alphabetical list of 1555 subjects, with 33,^0 refer- 
ences and many special alphabets. (Electro, in Apr. and May, 'S7 ; about 12,000 words.) 

INDEX OF PLACES, XXXT.-Ixiv. : List of 34S2 towns, with 8418 references to the 
same ; followed by these special lists : The U. S., Foreign Countries, Iviii. ; Rivers and Valleys, 
Mountain Peaks, lix. ; Mountain Ranges, Hills, Islands, Lakes and Ponds, Ix. ; Creeks and 
Brooks, Waterfalls, Bays and other divisions of Water, Parks and Squares, Railroads, Ixi. ; Col- 
leges, Public Buildings, Ixii., Geographical Miscellany, Cycling Clubs, Ixiii. ; Canals, Ixiv. 

INDEX OF PERSONS, Lvv.-Ixxxiii. : List of 1476 family-names, with 3126 refer- 
ences to the same ; followed by these special lists : Contributors' Records, Ixxi. ; Journalism of 
the Wheel, Ixxii. ; Literature of the Wheel, Ixxiv. ; Non-cycling Books, Ixxvi. ; Non-cycling 
Authors and Journals, Ixxvii.; Bicycles, Ixxviii. ; Tricycles ; Autobiographic and Personal, Ixxix. ; 
Wheeling Autobiography, Ixxx. ; This Book of Mine, lx.xxi. ; Philosophical and Social, Ixxxi. ; 
Incidents and Accidents, Ixxxiii. ; Women, Ixxxiii. (Electro, in Mar. and Apr., '87.) 

ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA, Ixxxiv.-cvii. : League Politics in '87. London 
Assurance : the retention of office by " Sec-Ed. of C. T. C," after confession of forgery, xci. 
" N. C. U." and " amateurism," xciii. Books and pamphlets, xcv. Journalism, ci. Notable 
mileage of '86, cvi. (Electro, in May, '87 ; 21,600 words.) 

MAY FOURTH, 18S7, cviii. : Verses of greeting to my 3000 co-partners. 



I. ON THE WHEEL, 1-14: The solitary wayfarer transfigured by his bicycle, i. It 
introduces him to the friendly confidence of the average citizen, 3. Summary of answers for 
the curious, 4. Strangers' sympathy with one's hobby an ever-fresh delight, 5. Character- 
studies on the road, 6-8. Huinors of the Erie tow-path, g. The Great American Hog, 10. 
Women as horse-drivers, 10. Touring-routes outlined, 11. Railroads and baggage, 13. Coun- 
try hotels and their ideals, 13. Tlie glory and charm of bicycling, 14. (Electro, in Mar., '85 ; 
7900 words. From Lippincott^s Magazine , June, '82. See pp. iii., 657-S, 702, 710.) 

II. AFTER BEER, 15 : A parody on George Arnold's verses. (Electro, in Mar., '85 ; 
200 words. From Puck, Aug. 11, '80; reprinted in many papers.) 

III. WHITE FLANNEL AND NICKEL PLATE, 16-22 : Absurdity of advice- 
giving about costume, 16. Moral advantages of white flannel, 16. Contents of my handle-bar 
luggage-roll, 17. Objection to bags and belts, 17. Covering for the head, hands and feet, 18. 
Benefits of velveteen, 19. Moral influence of nickel plate, 20. Addendum, 20-22. (Electro, in 
Mar., '85 ; 5000 words. Written in Dec, '81, for " Wheelman's Annual.") 

IV. A BIRTHDAY FANTASIE, 23: An imitation of T. L. Peacock's verses. 
(Electro, in Mar., '85 ; 300 words. From the Bi. World, J; n. 14, '81.) 



X TEN THOUSAND JULES ON A BICYCLE. 

T. FOUR SEASONS ON A FORTY-SIX, 24-34: My broken elbow as a corner- 
stone for the League, 24. First riding-lesson, in IJoston, 25. Early exploration of New York 
roads, 26. First tour almost coincident with "A Wheel Around the Hub," 26. Summaries of 
mileage (742 m. in '79). 27 J (i474 m- i" 'So), 2S ; (1956 m. in '81), 29; (1S27 m. in 'S2), 30. 
Separate roadway and riding-days, 31. Trips by rail and water, 31-33. Solitude a necessity of 
touring, 34. Its charm shown by a parody from Calverley, 34. (Electro, in Mar.,'S5; 6300 
words. From the Wheelman, Feb., '83 ; reprinted by ll'lieel World, of London.) 

VI. COLUMBIA, NO. 234,. 35-48: Unique experiences which makes its story worth 
telling, 35. My disclaimer of mechanical knowledge and of partiality, 36. Wear and tear of 
tirst 1500 m., 37. Durability of tires, 38. Spokes injured by careless polishing, 38. Breakings 
of backbone and neck, 39. Cranks, cone-bearings and new parts, 40. Costs of repairing, of 
" extras," of clothes and of transportation, 41. Last days of the machine, 42. New backbone 
and handle-bar, 43, 46. Miraculous escape from the mules, 44. Vain experiment at spoke- 
tightening, 46. Final wear of tires and pedals, 47. Plan of " rebuilding " abandoned in favor 
of " No. 234, Jr.," 47. Enshrined as a monument for wheelmen's homage, 48. (Electro, in 
Mar., '85; 8600 words, incl. 500 of fine type. First half, from WIieehnci7t, Mar., 'S3 ; second 
half, from Springfield Wheelmen's Gazette, Apr., '84 ; reprinted by Wlieel World, July, 84.) 

VII. INIY 234 RIDES ON "NO. 234," 49-63: Triolet for peace-offering, 49. Daily 
averages, 49. First long rides, 50. List of 50 m. records in 'Si, 51. Coasting, 51. Long 
stays in'saddle, 52. A blazing strange trial on Long Island, 54. Falls and headers, 55. En- 
counters with road-hogs, horses and mules, 57. Thefts and mishaps, 57. Specimens of speed 
and of hill-climbing, 58. Weight, height, leg-measurement and sizes of wheels tried, 59. Advan- 
tages of an under-size machine, 60. Tests of physique in ante-bicycling days, 61. Habits 
of exercise, bathing and eating, 61. Long immunity from illness, 62. Sweating and drinking,— 
with some extra-dry rhymes for the abstemious Dr. Richardson, 63. (Electro, in Mar., '85 ; 
8S00 words. From the Wlwelman, Apr., '83 ; verses reprinted by Wheeling, July 29, '85.) 

VIII. AROUND NEW- YORK, 64-100: Topography of Manhattan Island, 64. 
Social significance of localities, 65. System of numbering the streets and houses, 65. Block- 
stone pavements below Central Park, 66. Policemen and children as obstacles to sidewalk- 
riding, 67. Macadamized roadways around and above the Park, 68. East-side macadam and 
Blackwell's Island paths, 69. Morningside Park and High Bridge, 70. Central Bridge and Jer- 
ome Park, 71. Washington Heights and Kingsbridge, 72. Fordham and the Southern 
Boulevard, 72-3. Pelham Bridge and Ft. Schuyler, 73-4. Port Chester, White Plains and 
Tarrytown, 74-3. Vincent House to Yonkers and Kingsbridge, 75-7. Riverdale route to 
Yonkers, 78. Sawmill river route, 75, 79. Notable residences along the Hudson, 79. Spuyten 
Duyvil and Mt. St. Vincent, 80. Nyack and Englewood, 80. The Palisades, Ft. Lee and 
Weehawken,8i. Ferries to Hoboken and Jersey City, 82. Two routes to Newark, 82. Bergen 
Hill to Ft. Lee, 83. Bergen-Line Boulevard and the Hackensack marshes, 83. Ferries by 
which to enter or get around the city, 84. Route of Belt line horse-cars, connecting the ferry 
and steamboat docks, 85. Storage of wheels at the ferry baggage-rooms or on Warren St., 86. 
The big bridge, 86-7. Routes to and through Brooklyn, 87-8. Prospect Park and Coney 
Island, Sg, 92. Jamaica and Astoria, 90. Ferries on East river, 91. Park Commissioners as 
obstructionists, 92-5. Statistics of Central Park and the new parks, 95-6. Clubs and club- 
rooms, 96-7. Fares on ferries and car lines, 97. The elevated railroads, 98. " Seeing " the 
city, 99. Maps, 99. Directories and guide-books, 100. (Electro, in Apr., '85; 23,000 words, 
incl. 2000 of fine type. First half, from Springfield Wfteelmen's Gazette, Bi. World and 
Wheel. Many corrections of and additions to the foregoing were wxitten in Dec, '86, for the 
" summary," on pp. 5S2-6. See also pp. 150-8, 165-6, i6S, 246-7, 770-5.) 

IX. OUT FROM BOSTON, 101-114: To Portsmouth and back, 101-2. Lexington, 
Wallham, Worcester and Springfield, 103-4. Pemberton Square, the hotels, club-houses and 
other landmarks, 104-6. Streets of the Back Bay district, 106. Route to Rhode Island, 107. 
Newport rides, loS. Providence to Worcester, 109. Springfield to Boston, iio-n. Road- 
books and maps, 112-13. Day's runs of 100 m. straightaway, 113-14. (Electro, in May, '85; 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. xi 

9600 words, incl. 3600 of fine type. First part, from Bi. World, Aug. 26, 'Si, and May 22, '85. 
See also pp. 114, 208, 246, 579, 766-7.) 

X. THE ENVIRONS OF SPRINGFIELD, 115-123: General advantages as a 
riding-district, 116. Eastward routes, 117. Northward routes, 118. Excursions from North- 
ampton, 119. Westward routes, 120. Southward routes, 122. Chances for long slays in the 
saddle, without repetition, 123-6. Maps and guide-books, 126-7. Notable straightaway runs, 
1 28. (Electro, in May, '85 ; 9600 words, incl. 3600 in fine type. First part, from Wheelman, 
Dec, '83. See " summary " of '86, pp. 579-80 ; also pp. 144-8, 179-S3, 193-4, 20S, 251-4, 768.) 

XI. SHORE AND HILL-TOI-" IN CONNECTICUT, 129-149: The Thames and 
its tributaries, 129. Experiences as boat-race manager at New London, 130. Along the shore 
N. L. to New Haven, 13 1-2. Routes between N. H. and Hartford, 133-7. Notable rides be- 
tween N. H. and N. Y., 138-9. Up the Naugatuck valley, 139-42. The hills of Litchfield, 
143-4. The Farmington valley, 145. From the Hudson to the hills of Berkshire, 146-8. Maps, 
148. Dr. Tyler's long run, 149. (Electro, in May, '85 ; 14,400 words, incl. 4290 in fine type. 
First part, from Springfield W/ieelmen's Gazette, June, '85. See "summary " of Dec, '86, 
pp. 581-2; also pp. 122-3, 179-S0, 248-51, 253-4, 700, 769-70.) 

XII. LONG ISLAND AND STATEN ISLAND, 150-168: Greenport to River- 
head and the south shore, 150. North shore route, 151. Flushing to Yaphank and back in 
'81, 152-3. Long-distance riders of '83-4, 154. Maps and guide-books, 154-5, 158. My '8i 
explorations of Staten Island, T56. " B. Bugle's " '82 report, 157. (Electro, in June, '85 ; 6300 
words, incl. 2700 in fine type. From Bi. World, Nov. 26, '80 ; May 20, '81 ; Mar. 24 and July 
28, '82. See pp. 84, 86-92, 97, 583-6.) 

XIII. COASTING ON THE JERSEY HILLS, 159-173: Notable map by the 
.State Geological Survey, 159, 175-6. Triangular outlines of the Orange riding-district, 160. 
Coasting, 161-2. Morristown and the Delaware Water Gap, 163-4, 173. Peterson, Hackensack 
and Ft. Lee, 165-S. Elizabeth and New Brunswick, 167, 172. Newark northward to New- 
burg, 169-71. " Z. & S." tour to Greenwood Lake, 170. Somerville, Trenton and Philadelphia, 
172-3. Tow-path from Easton to Hackettstown, 173. Basaltic columns of Orange Mtn., 174-5. 
Maps and guides, 174-8. "League Road-book of Pa. and N. J.," 177-8. (Electro, in Jinie, 
'85; 13,250 words, incl. 4S50 in fine type. First part, from the Wheelman, June, '83. See 
" suminary " of Dec, '86, pp. 583, 588-g ; also pp. 80-85, 207, 776-8.) 

XIV. LAKE GEORGE AND THE HUDSON, 179-198: Hartford to Springfield, 
179-81. Up the Conn, valley to Bellows Falls, 182-4. Rutland to Whitehall and the lake, 184-5. 
Maps and guide-books, with statistics and verses, 185-7, 198. Ten days in the Catskills, 187-9. 
From the lake down the valley to Hudson, i8g-go. Outline for a round trip, 191. " Z. & S." 
tour to the lake, 192-3. Poughkeepsie to N. Y., 194. Fishkill to Hudson, 195. Swift records 
along the river, 197. " Big Four " tour, 198. The Wallkill and Ramapo valleys, igS. (Electro, 
in June, '85 ; 13,250 words, incl. 4850 in fine type. First part, from Bi. World, Oct. 7, Nov. 
II, '81. See pp. 74, 81, 5S6-7.) 

XV. THE ERIE CANAL AND LAKE ERIE, 199-208: Initiation on the tow-path 
at Schenectady, igg. The Mohawk valley, 200. Canandaigua, 202. Niagara to Buffalo, 203. 
The Ridge road along Lake Erie, 204-6. Binghamton to Great Bend, 207. Port Jervis to Del. 
Water Gap and across New Jersey, 207. W. H. Butler's ride, Saratoga to Olean, 208. (Electro, 
in June, '85 ; 6450 words, incl. 1350 of fine type. From Bi. World, May 27, June 3, 10, 17, '81.) 

XVI. NIAGARA AND SOME LESSER WATERFALLS, 209-223: Utica to 
Trenton Falls, 209-10. Suggestions for the Adirondacks, 210-11. Syracuse to Seneca Falls, 
212. Geneva Lake to Avon Springs, 213. The Genesee valley and the falls at Portage, 213-14, 
217. Reports from Niagara, 215. " Big Four" route, Buffalo to Rochester, 215. Verses on 
the Genesee Falls and the Kaaterskill, 216. Rochester to Portage and Niagara, 216-17. .'Vlong 
the Erie r. r.. Corning to Binghamton, 218-19. Along the Susquehanna, Towanda to Wilkes- 
barre, 219-20. Weather, hotels and baggagemen of this 400 m. tour, 221. Abstract of " West- 
em New- York Road-Book," 221-3. (Electro, in June, '85; 10,800 words, incl. 5400 of fine 
type. From the Wheelman, Jan. '83. See pp. 586-S.) 



xii TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 

XVII. KENTUCKY AND ITS MAMMOTH CAVE, 224-237 : How the Blue 
Grass Region welcomed me, on the first summer-day of 'S2, 224. Covington, Georgetown and 
Lexington, 225-6. The midnight moon li;^hts my way to Harrodsburg, 227. Crawford's Cave 
and the battle-fiijid of Perryville, 22S. Rain, mud, and brook-fording, for a grocery-store sup- 
per at Lebanon, 229. Springfield, Bardstown and New Haven, 229-30. Across the clay 
gulches; the hardest day's journey in four years, 230-31. By train and wagon to Mammoth 
Cave, 231. An escort out from Louisville, 232. Frankfort, Georgetown, Parisand Mi.lersburg, 
233. Blue Lick Springs to ]\Liysville, 233-4. General advice and special praise for the limestone 
pikes of the Kentucky hills, 23-1:. J. M. Verhoeff's summary of 450 m. of road explored by 
him (5 counties of Indiana and 9 of Kentucky) in brief trips from Louisville, 257. (Electro, in 
June, '85; 9200 words, incl. 2500 of fine type in the V. report. From the IVIuelman, Oct., 
'S3. See " summary " of Uec, '86, p. 590 ; also pp. 4S6, 7S3.) 

XVIII. ALONG THE POTOMAC, 23S-245 : Centennial inspiration of this '81 tour, 
238. Frederick, Hagerstown and Williamsport, 239, 243. Benighted among the bed-bugs of 
" the brick house," 239. By canal-boat through the tunnel, 240. Tramping the muddy tow- 
p,;th (with hunger, solitude, fog and darkness as attendants) to Cumberland, 240. A path of 
pain, also, in returning : Harper's Ferry to Washington, 241. Description of the Chesapeake 
& Ohio canal, 242, 243-4. W. H. Rideing's sketch of " The Old National Pike," 242-3. An 
'S3 tour of 1000 m. by a pair of Southern cyclers, 244. Ohio men's ride to Washington, 245. 
"Picturesque B. & O.," 245. (Electro, in June, '85; 5S50 words, incl. 2S50 of fine type. 
From the Bi. World, June 23, July 14, '82. See pp. 3S4, 497, 590, 7S2.) 

XIX. WINTER WHEELING, 240-254: Its general advantages, 246. New York 
to Port Chester, 246-7. Across Connecticut, 24S-51. My 6oooth mile finished in a snow-storm, 
251. Christmas excursions around Springfield, 252. Blown to Hartford in January, 253. Brad- 
ley's chart of the Springfi;ld riding-district, 254. (Electro, in June, '85 ; 4900 words, incl. 500 
of fine type. From the IVlieebnan, May, '83.) 

XX. IN THE DOWN-EAST FOGS, 255-281: Independence the distinctive charm 
of bicycling, 255. Why I once sacrificed it for the pleasure of the discomforts which belong to 
■" touring in a crowd," 256. Elwell's glowing prospectus, 257. The three dozen " participants " 
in this earliest of cycling excurs'ons on a large scale, 257-8. Steamboat ride from Portland, 
259. Start of the cavalcade at Eastport, and " first blood," 260. Good dinner and bad rain at 
Robbinston, 261. Alone I wheel to Calais, 262. Fascination of conquering the mud and storm, 
263. Humors of "personal journalism " on the border, 263-4. A day's halt in the rain and 
fog, 265. The making of boots and language in New Brunswick, 265. Dancing through the 
stormy night, 266. Adieu to Calais and its charmers, from the steam-tug's foggy deck, 266. 
Second dinner at Robbinston, and a ghostly return-ride to Eastport, 267. Steaming 
through the mists to Lubec, 26S. Voting for Grand Manan and getting Campo- 
bcllo, 269. An agreeable afternoon on that island, 270. Blazing sunshine, at last, for 
the ride to Machias, 271-2. The pleasures of I-told-you-so and of Sunday loitering, 272-3. 
My only " square " headers in eight years' riding, 273-4. Scenes from the homeward 
steamer's deck, 274. Mt. Desert as a place for gratifying the " club-run ideal," by a long and 
tiresome scramble for " mileage " over the rocks, 275. Details of our actual scramble, illus- 
trative of the general report, " Six bent handle-bars out ef a possible ten," 276-S. Morning 
jaunt to " the Ovens," 27S. Happy finale of the tour, 279. Pictures of its scenes and of the 
" participants," 279. Explanation of my own rule against giving away my likeness, 2S0. The 
discomforts of notoriety, 2S0-S1. A personal photograph worth publishing, 2S1. Map and 
guide to Mt. Desert, 2S1. lElectro. in June, '85 ; 16,900 words, incl. 2100 of fine type. Pp. 
275-9 <T's from the Sprittg_fi.eld WJiselmen^ s G-xsctte, July, '85, and pp. 2'o-i from the Bi. 
World, May 22, '85. See "summary" of Dec, '86, pp. 573-5; also pp. 765-6.) 

XXI. NOVA SCOTIA AND THE ISLANDS BEYOND, 2S2-294 : ISIysteries of 
the customs rules and the express business, 282. Yarmouth to Weymouth in the rain,2S2-3. A 
moist picnic of the Acadian French, 2S3-4. Digby, Annapolis and Kentville, 2*^4-5. Grand Prd 
and Windsor, 2S6. A rainy ride through the forest to Halifax, 287. Environs of H., and 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. xiii 

statistics of the coast route to Yarmouth, 2SS, 292. Short spins on the island of Cape Breton, 
288. Description of Prince Edward Island, 290. Two days of pleasant striigghng with its 
winds and rutty roads, 291. Impressions of Halifax and its " English atmosphere," 291. Sum- 
mary of the fortnight's tour and its varied enjoyments, 292. Sweetser's guide-books, 293. 
(Electro, in June, '85; 8000 words, incl. 700 of fine type. From Ouihtg, Apr., '84; reprinted 
in part by " Canadian VV. A. Guide," Apr., '84, and Mar., '87. See pp. 330, 636, 790.) 

XXII. STRAIGHTAWAY FOR FORTY DAYS, 294-309: The down-grade from 
middle-age, 294. Long-distanca touring as a cure for malaria, 295. Sympathy with the Indian's 
longing to " walk large," 295. Gradual growth of the idea that I might make a monumental 
trail " from Michigan to Virginia," 295. Mileage statistics of the actual tour, 296-7. Summary 
of the weather-changes, 297-300. Four rain-storms during my Canadian fortnight, with adverse 
winds, 297. Mud and moisture in crossing New York, 29S. Picturesque snow-squalls in Penn- 
sylvania, 299. Indian-summer haze in Virginia, 300. My surprise on being credited with " the 
first long trail in cycling history," 300. Swift riding in Ontario not a hindrance to scenic enjoy- 
ment, 301. Outline of the object-lessons which instructed me between the St. Lawrence and the 
Potomac, 302. Distinctive intellectual charm of conquering Nature herself, 303. Scenes and 
circumstances amid which I completed " the first American trail of a thousand miles str.iight- 
away," 304. The sensation of triumph, as voiced in the verses of " H. H.," 304. The strangest 
scene in all my travels (and the only one which this book attempts to reproduce by " word-paint- 
ing")) 305. Falls, night-riding and mishaps of the forty days, 306-7. Pathological observations, 
306-7. Clothes, shoes and baggage-supplies, 308. Malaria completely cured, but the love of 
touring insatiable, 307. My compliments to the players at national politics, and my praises of 
continental wheeling as an equally respectable game for the elderly, 309. The ideal of a quiet 
life, as portrayed by paraphrase of George Arnold's verses, 309. (Electro, in Oct., '85 ; 10,600 
words, incl. 600 of fine type. First half, from Spring-yield VVheeljnen'' s Gazette, Nov., '85 ; 
second half, from Wheel World, of London, Dec, '85.) 

XXIII. A FORTNIGHT IN ONTARIO, 310-332: Chance for 100 m. of swift 
riding, from Windsor or Tecumseh to ClearvilU, 310-11. Crying need of a change in Canada's 
cumbersome customs regulations against bicycling, 311-12. My 100 m. run in 20 h., — London, 
Goderich and Mitchell, 3f2-i4. Pres. Bates's report in '83 of bad roads near Clearville and 
Hamilton, 314. C. H. Hepinstall's 100 m. straightaway, 314. Various tourists' reports of roads 
in Western Ontario, 315-16. Summary of my fortnight's mileage, 317. An 8om. run to Toronto, 
ending in the frosty moonlight of early morn, 31 7-1S. Records of Toronto road-riders, 318-19. 
Conflicting reports from the two Chicago touring-parties, '84 and '85, as to roads and scenery 
between Toronto and Kingston, 320. Details of first American straightaway road-race, 
Cobourg to Kingston, 321-2. Biography of the winner, Cola E. Stone, 322-3. Clerical wheel- 
men's Canadian tour of Aug., '85, 323-4. Other reports from Kingston, 324-5. Rough riding 
from K. to Prescott, to complete the run of 635 m., — the longest ever made by me in 14 days, 
325-6. Routes to Montreal and to Ottawa, and the environs of O., 326-7. Tom- of F. M. S. 
Jenkins, Ottawa to Montreal and Sorel, 327-S. Quebec to Metane, 329. Excursions from 
Quebec, 330. The first bicycle trail in the Western World made at Montreal on " Dominion 
Day" of 1874, 330. Description of the " C. W. A. Guide-Book " and summary of its routes, 
330-32. Maps, 331. (Electro, in Nov., '85; 18,900 words, incl. 15,300 of fine type. From 
L. A. W. Bulletin, Nov. and Dec, '85 ; enlarged from sketch in " Canadian W. A. Guide," 
Apr., '84. See " summary" of Dec, '86, p. 575, for Quebec-to-Montreal route ; see also pp. 
296-307, 500,636, 789-90.) 

XXIV. THOUSAND ISLANDS TO N.A.TURAL BRIDGE, 333.352: Kingston 
as an objective-point for tourists, 331. Ogdensburg to Watertown and Syracuse, 334-5- S. to 
Cazenovia, with reports from local riders, 336. The Otselic valley and Binghamton, 337. A 
hotel-clerk's lesson at Susquehanna, 338. Over the mtns. to Honesdale, 339. By tow-path to 
Port Jervis, 340. Reported routes thence to the Hudson and to Scranton, 340. From the 
Delaware to the Lehigh, 341. The Mahoning valley and the Schuylkill, 342. Fast riding 
from Reading to Chambersburg, 343-4. Poled across the Potomac at Williamsport, 344. Up 



xiv TEN THOUSAXD MILKS OX A BICYCLE. 

the noble " Vnlley pike " to Staunton, 344-6. Topograpliy of tlie Slienandoali region, from G. 
E. Pond's " Campaigns of 1S64," 346-S. Tour of Washington men in 'S2, from Harper's Ferry 
to the Natural Bridge and back to W., 34S-9. My own pedestrian trip to the Bridge, 349-50. 
Suggested combination of r. r. routes to the Bridge and Luray Cavern, 350- 1. Other reported 
roads in Virginia, 351. Military maps in " The Campaigns of the Civil War," 352. (Electro. 
in Nov., 'S5; 14,200 words, incl. 6500 of tine type. First part, from Springfield li'/ieelmeti's 
Gasette, Dec, 'S5. See pp. 29S-30S, 374-90, 4S6, 495-S, 57S, yya.) 

XXV. THE CORAL REEFS OF BERMUDA, 80S 870: A winter invitation from 
Maine, 353. Geography and topography of the islands, from various authorities, 354-6. Mark 
Twain's alluring account of the coral roads, 356-7. Our arrival at Hamilton on Sunday, 35S. 
Sunset and moonlight along the North road to St. George's, 359. Tlie South road, 360. The 
Middb road and Somerset, 361. My race for the return steamer, 362-3. Incidents, expenses 
and conditions of the ocean voyage, 364. Pleasant impression of the blacks, 364-5. Praise of 
" the incomparable loquot," 365, 367. Almanac, maps and guide-books, 366-7. Exact details 
of the process called " free entiy " at the New York Ciisttm House, 36S-9. My companion 
appeals against our unjust tax, and wins a new decision from the Treasury Department, 369-70. 
This decision cl.isses passengers' cycles as " personal effects," to be admitted without duty or 
delay, 370. Four names for wheelmen to hold in grateful memory, 370. (Electro, in Jan., 'S5, 
except the List 3 pp. in Dec. ; 11,600 words, incl. 2900 of fine type. From S/^riug- field Wheel- 
men s G.fzette, Jan., 'S5, except the last 3 pp. from Ouiiiig, Mar., 'S5 ; reprinted in Tricycling 
Jjurn.il, of London, and Australian Cycling Xe'MS. The first 15 pp. were issued as a pamphlet 
— 1000 in Jan. and 2000 in Feb., 'S5 — for the attraction of subscribers. See pp. 706, 710, 790,) 

XXVI. BULL RUN, LURAY CAVERN AND GETTYSBURG, 371-8S0: An '84 
tour, inspired by my hope of seeing " one good parade of the League," 371. Through Philadel- 
phia and Delaware, 372. Stuck in the Maryland mud, 373. Good riding from the Susquehanna 
to Baltimore and EUicott City, 373. By ClarksviUe pike to Washington, 373-4. Fairfax Court 
House and CenterviUe, 374. Across the Bull Run battle-fields to Warrenton, 375. Washing- 
ton's environs, as reported by W. F. Grossman, 376. Baltimore's suburban routes, 377. 
Springfield clerks' tour. New York to Washington, 377. Susquehanna tow-path, Havre-de- 
Grace to Columbia, 37S. My muddy advance from Warrenton and passage of the Rapjiahan- 
nock, 37S-9. Sweet strawberries at Sperryviila before I climb the mountain, 379. Thunder 
and lightning celebrate my four-miles' descent of the Blue Ridge, 3S0. Luray and its Cavern 
contrasted and comiiared to Mammoth Cave and Natural Bridge, 3S1-2. Over the Massanutten, 
3S1-2. Broiled frogs' legs at Mt. Jackson, 3S3. Down the Shenandoah to Harper's Ferry, 3S3-4. 
From the Antietam to Gettysburg, 3S4-5. Sunday morning's reflections in the National Ceme- 
tery, 3S5-6. York, Columbia, Lancaster, AUentown and Easton, 3S6-7. The 1000 ni. circuit 
which initiated " No. 234, Jr.," 3SS. H. S. Wood's swift ride from Staunton to Columbia, and 
other excursions, 3SS. His summary of the Philadelphia riding-district, including rides of 
Fairmount Park, 3S9-90. Artistic and literan,- treatment of the '65 viloce, 390. (Electro, in 
Dec, 'S5 ; 14,400 words, incl. 7200 of fine type. First part, from S/>ringfield ll'/ieelineHS 
Gazelle, Jan., 'S6; last paragraph was crowded out from p. 404 of " Bone-Shaker Days." See 
pp. 172-3. 23S-45, 34>-53. 4S6, 495-S, 57S-) 

XXVII. BONE-SHAKER DAYS, 891-406: How the Wonderful Year. " 1S69," 
rolled in on a velocipede, 391. The load of obligations whiclt bound me, a Senior in Ya'.e Col- 
lege, to waste no time in trifling, 392. First experiences at the rink, and decision to resist its 
allurements, 393. A sidew.ilk vision-of-bsauty on the two-wheeler scatters my prudence to the 
winds, 393. I submit to destiny and become a velocipedist, 394. The old white horse whose 
ghost I sent galloping through the newspapers, 395. Proof that the undergraduate world forms 
the only real and universally-recognized aristocracy in America, 396-7. Trustworthiness of 
" journ.tlism," as shown by eight variations of the fictitious " horse story," 397-S. The bone- 
sh.nkcr welcomed at Yale in 1819 as well as in '69,395-9. The Vale Lit. ^fagazine''s ctixeM 
chronicle of the three months which marked the rise, decline and fall of velocipeding at New 
Haven, 400-2. Other testimony, from Goddard's scrappy book and the newspapers of '69, 402-4 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. xv 

(see also p. 390). Post-collegiate reminiscences of the Pickering, 404-5. My final trial of the 
bone-shaker, in '72, at the Crystal Palace dog-show, 405. Narrow chance by which I failed of 
"importing the first rubber-tired bicycle into the United States," when I came home from En- 
gland in April of '76, 406. (ICleclro. in Aug., '85; 10,700 words, inch 3900 of fine type. First 
hdM Uo\\\ SpgfUi. WheeltnoL's Gazette, Sept., '85; last half from Wheel World, of London, 
Oct., 'S5 ; reprinted also by Trkyelhig Journal, Dec. 23, 30, '85; Australian Cycling News, 
Jan. 2, '86. Issued as a pamphlet, loco copies, for the attraction of subscribers, Nov. 12, '85.) 

XXVIII. CURL, THE BEST Of BULL-DOGS, 407-425: Origin, characteristics 
and environment, 407. The gentlest of hearts beneath a fierce exterior, 408. Personal appear- 
ances and " points," 409. General impression made upon strangers, as portrayed by the poet 
of Puck, ^oq. Leaping through the window-glass, with the cry of "Out! damned Spot!" 
410. Relations with Black Jack, ostensible and secret, 410-11. The garden fence as a pre- 
tended barrier for bravery, 411. Verses of honor for "the outside dog in the fight," 412. 
Ruffianism towards a pair of canine weaklings, 412. Ears sensitive to bell-ringing, 413. The 
fatal fascination of fireworks, 413. Conventional resentment assumed for certain noises and 
movements, 413-14. Winter sport with snow-caves, sledding and skating, 414. Hatred of 
boating and swimming, 415. A furtive drinker, 415. Assumption of dignified indifference to- 
wards the cats, 416. Tricks in food-taking, 416. Demand for the front seat in every vehicle, 
417. Exploits as a fence-jumper and hen-chaser, 417. Troubles as a fly-catcher and candy- 
eater, 418. Victorious over the woodchuck but vanquished by the bumble-bees, 418. Abashed 
by the elephant, 41S. The wicked flea, 419. "Circling" as a conventional diversion, 419. 
Religious rites with the saw-horse, 419. A fetich of wonderful power, 420. Canine asceticism 
gratified by head-bumping, 421. Birth and name, 421. Politically a " War Democrat " in the 
stirring times of '61, 422. Rare lapses from virtue's path, 422. Health and strength impaired 
by poison, 422. Dislike of mirrors and bed-chambers, 423. Outward signs of seeing phantasms 
and visions in sleep, 423. Deliberateness of retiring for the night, 423-4. Waning prestige a 
token of old age, 424. Refusal to tarry in a world which might give greater esteem to " cycling " 
than to "circling," 424. E.Kceptional toleration for the poor creature who was fated to attend 
him on the final night, 425. Dead, at the post of honor, 425. (Electro, in July, '85 ; 11,000 
words, inch 325 of fine type. Written, July 27 to Aug. 2, '84, and rejected by all the magazine 
editors. A special edition of 1000 copies, on heavy paper, with cover and heliotype portrait, has 
been published and will be mailed for 25 c. each.) 

XXIX. CA.STLE SOLITUDE IN THE METROPOLIS, 426-472: Rarity of 
" character " in buildings, 426. Chances for self-suppression in London and New York com- 
pared, 426-7. The only two modern cities whose immensity obliterates the sense of locality 
and renders individual isolation possible, 427. The metropolitan spirit of impersonality illus- 
trated by a quotation from Howells, 427-8. Lightness of "social pressure" in the most- 
secluded Building of the least-censorious city on the globe, 428. Description of it, as " Chrysalis 
College," in Theodore Winthrop's novel of 1861, 428-9. Report by T. B. Aldrich, in 1866, 430. 
Three other accounts, in 18S0, 431. History of Washington Square, with Henry James's sym- 
pathetic picture of it as " the most delectable," 432. The Nation's accurate description of the 
Square, in 1878, 433. Pictures and statistics of the Building, in various standard works, 434. 
Its corner-stone laid in 1833 and its chances of endowment destroyed by the business panic of 
'37> 433-4- A more massive and imposing collegiate pile than had previously been known in 
the Western World, 434-5. Dream of the founders about a "non-sectarian combination " up- 
held by the influence and ca.sh of several powerful sects, 435. Popular confnsfon of identity 
between the " University of the City of N. Y.," the " University of the State of N. Y.," the 
" College of the City of N. Y." and that other and largest college in the city which is called a 
university by its friends, 436. No hope of great endowments, but no fear of actual starvation, 
436-7. A msritorious institution, but dwarfed by tlie shadow of a mighty name, 437. How the 
two hundred students and instructors, who daily throng its halls, serve as a cloak for the identity 
of the thirty or forty permanent tenants, ^i,?,. Difficulty of espionage by day, and isolation of 
the janitor by night, 43S. A peculiarity which made plausible the alleged concealment of " Cecil 



xvi TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 

Dreeme," 43S-9. Sketch of Theodore Wiiithrop, 439-40. The mystei'y of solitude protects the 
Building from the incursions of the evil-minded, 440-1. As regards its relations to womankind, 
441-4. " Castle " and " Custom " contrasted, 444. " Social pressure " in England, which ob- 
literates individual freedom, 445-S. Testimony of Hamerton, Borrow and Nadal, 446-7. The 
latter's showing why "society" cannot exist in America, 44S-9. Relentlessness of servants' 
tyranny over the wealthy, whether their environment be aristocratic or democratic, 449-50. 
Evils of hotel-life, 450. Disquieting social-shadows cast by the peculiar system of street-num- 
bering in use on Manhattan Island, 451-2. Fifth Avenue, as described in '85 by J. H. Howard, 
jr., 453-4. Brief escapes from the " servitude to servants " gained by a resort to the woods, or 
to the constant changes of travel, 454. The only house in the world where the yoke of con- 
formity need never be worn, 454. How the simple savagery of the Far West may be enjoyed, 
with less expense and discomfort, by the solitary camper-out on Washington Square, 455. An 
elegant and elaborate system of living also possible, without abandonment of impersonal con- 
ditions, 456. The janitor and his assistants, 457-61. Contrasts pointed by " the mighty 
concierge " who tyrannizes over Paris, 45S-9. Lack of conveniences and of good business- 
management atoned for by safety and independence, 460-1. The inspiring fiction of sole 
ownership, 462. Rarity of personal contact among tenants, 463. The Nestor of the Castle, 
464. Artists and college-bred men its chief admirers, 465. Pleasures of undergraduate life re- 
called without its labors, 466. Peace secured at the Castle without the sacrifice of companion- 
ship, 467* Hamerton's remarks on the compensations of solitude and independence, 467-9. 
Bohemi.inism and Philistinism contrasted, 469. Visit of the Prince of Wales, in 1S60, to this 
" freest spot in free America," 469-71. Analogy between the Building and the Bicycle, 472. 
Poem by Robert Herrick, 472. (Electro, in Sept., '85; 31,700 words, incl. 11,700 of fine type. 
Written in Sept., '84, and Aug., '85 ; see p. 710. A special ed. of 1000 copies, on heavy paper, 
with cover and small picture of the Castle, has been published and will be mailed for 25 c. each.) 

XXX. LONG-DISTANCE ROUTES AND RIDERS, 473-501: Thomas Stevens 
and his 8000 m. trail, of 18S4-5, from California to Persia, 473-4 (see also pp. 570-2, for ad- 
ventures of '86, in Afghanistan, India, China and Japan, completing his round-the-world tour). 
San Francisco to Boston in '84, 475-So. Liverpool to Teheran in '85, 4S0-3. Compaiisons be- 
tween his three years' journey and my own three years' task of puuing together this book, 483-4- 
Hugh .1. High's '85 tour of 3000 m., Pennsylvania to Nebraska and back, 484-6. Long ride in 
'83 by Dr. H. Jarvis, 4S6-7. St. Louis to Boston in '85, by G. W. Baker, 487-8. Ohio-to-Bos- 
ton tours of 'So and 'Si, 48S. Illinois to Wyoming in '82, by Will Rose, 489. A July fortnight 
of '84 in California, by H. C. Finkler, 4S9-91. Yosemite Valley trip of '85, by the Rideout 
brothers, 491-2. Notable all-day runs in California, '79 to '85, 49i-4- W. B. Page's summer 
excursions from Philadelphia, '82 to '85, 494-9 (see also pp. 574-S for 1400 m. tour of 'S6). 
Elderly and "professional " tourists, 499. Southern trios' totns to Springfield in '85 and to 
Boston in '86, 500. M. Sheriff's Manchester-Montreal circuit of 700 m. in '84, 500. E. R. 
Drew's routes in Ohio, 501. W. P. Cramer's three days' straightaway, 501. (Electro, in Jan., 
'86; 26,000 words, incl. only 250 of coarse type. Stevens's ride to Boston, pp. 473-So, was printed 
in WJifebncn'' s Gize/te, Jan., '87; and the rest of the story, pp. 4^0-4, 570-2, in Feb. issue.) 

XXXI. STATISTICS FROM THE VETERANS, 602-530: Difficulty of persuad- 
ing men to prepare per.'^onal records, 502-3. C. E. Pratt, 503-4. J. G. Dalton, 504-5. L. J. 
Bates, 505-6. C. A. Hazlett, 506-7. W. V. Oilman, 507-8. L. H. Johnson, 508-9 (see also 
530, 588). J. \V. Smith's tabulation of 20,000 m., July, 'So, to Dec, '85, 509. R. D. Mead, 509-10. 
N. P. Tyler, s'lo-ii. H. W. Williams, 51 1-12. S. H. Day, 512-13. T. Midgley, 513-15. W. 
L. Perham, 515. T. Rothe, 515-16. A. S. Parsons, 516-17. W. Farrington, 517-18. E. A. 
Hemmenway, 517-18. B. B. Avers, 518-19. N. H. Van Sicklen, 519. F. E. Yates, 519-20. 
G. J. Taylor, 520. T. B. Somers, 520-1. J. D. Dowling, 521-2. G. F. Fiske, 522-3. E. 
Mason, 523. W. R. Pitman, 523-4. H. E! Ducker, 524. I. J. Kusel, 524. A. Young, 525. 
E. H. Corson, 525 (see also 577, 670-1). A. Bassett and J. G. Dean, 525-6 (see also 663-5). H. 
B. Hart, 526 (see also 660, 678). My unanswered letter to C. D. Kershaw, 526. A. Ely and 
W. G. Kendall, 526. Greatest American mileage in '85 : J. D. Macaulay's 6573 m. and C. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. xvii 

M. Goodnow's 5056 m., 527. J. Reynolds and wife, 52S. W. E. Hicks's 4679 m. as a news- 
gatherer in 'S5, 52S-9. J. W. Bell's long stay in saddle, 529. F. P. Symonds, 529. J. V. 
Stephenson, 529-30. L. B. Graves, F. A. El well, A. B. Barkman, W. T. Wi.liams and E. P. 
Burnham, 530. Tii. record of 5557 m. in '85, by three merry wives of Orange, 530. (, Electro, 
in Jan., '86; 25,500 words, incl. only S50 of coarse type. Pp. 501-7, from Springfield H'liecl- 
meiCs Gazette, Mar., '86.) 

XXXII. BRITISH AND COLONIAL RECORDS, 531-572: Request that English 
press-men show fair-play towards my foreign contributors, 531. E. Tegetnieier, a London 
journalist, reports 10,053 m. covered in '83, and 46,600 m. in 13 years, 531-3. H. R. Reynolds, 
jr., an Oxford graduate of 'So and a lawyer, rides 55,930 ni. in 9 years, chiefly as an economical 
way of getting about, 533. " Facd," a wood-engraver, deaf and near-sighted, ciijoys a daily 
open-air spin for 3 years, with only 75 exceptions, and makes a total of 19,388 ni., 534-5 H. R. 
Goodwin, a Manchester jsweler, lakes a 19 days' tour of 2054 m., 535-7. J. W. M. Brown, a 
Lincolnshire farmer, rolls up 53,343 m. in a decade, 537-S. H. J. Jones, of the Haverstock C. 
C, covers 3600 m. of separate road, in a 3 years' record of 16,016 m., 53S-40. Alfred Hayes, a 
London leather-dealer, reports 30,000 m. in 9 years, incl. 15,000 m. on a single 46-in. bicycle and 
more than 160 successive Sunday rides, 540-1. R. P. Hampton Roberts's 16,060 m. of wheeling 
in 7 years, tabulated by months and supplemented by other mileage records of the Belsize B. C. , 
541-3. Reports from H. T. Wharlow, 23,325 m. in 6^ years; C. W. Brown, 17,013 m. in 4 
years ; and W. Binns, a Salford draper, 22,147 m. in 6} years, 543. Monthly tabic of 12 years' 
riding, 40,3 19 m., by Rev. H. C. Courtney, Vicar of Hatton, 544. Seven years' record, 20,700 m , 
by J. S. Whatton, ex-capt. Camb. Univ. B. C, 544. F. Salsbury's 36 monthly tables of 
17,499 m. in '82-'84, 544-5. "Average accounts" from F. W. Brock, of Bristol, and G. H. 
Rushworth, of Bradford, 5^5. Inexpensive iioo m.'tour in '85 of a Glasgow University grad- 
uate, Hugh Callan, who won the Tit Bits prize of $250 in '86, for best story of cycling experi- 
ences, and who intends to print a book about them, 545-6. Diary for a decade, 14, 107 m., of an 
Irish country gentleman, Wm. Bowles, 546. H. Elherington, projector and proprietor of 
Wlieeling, 546-S (see also 6S9-90). H. Sturmey, editor of the Cyclist, 54S-9 (see 3150690-2). A. 
M. Bolton, author of " Over the Pyrenees," 549. C. Howard and R. E. Phillips, compilers of 
route-books, 550. G. L. Bridgman, S. Colder and G. T. Stevens, 551. Tour in 'S3, London to 
Pesth, of Ivan Zmertych, a young Magyar, 551. Hugo Barlhol's circuit of 2750 m., June 8 to 
Aug. 31, '84, Saxony to Naples and back, 551-2. Road-riding reports from France, Holland 
and Hungary, 552-3, 558. Facile-medal riders of '84, 553. Liverpool long-distance men of '85, 
553. Notable rides in '85 by C. H. R. Gossett, Mrs. J. H. Allen, and others, 554. London- 
to-Bath annual winners, '77 to '85, 554. Record of tours and races to and from John O'Groat's, 
'73 to '86, 554-7. Wonderful cross-country wheeling by G. P. Mills, 556-8. Daniel's long tri. 
ride in France, 558. AUSTRALASIAN REPORTS, 558-570: Day's rides of 100 m. in 
Victoria, 55S-9. Tours of the Melbourne B. C, '79 to '84, 560. Tours by Adelaide and Bal- 
larat club-men, '84 and '85, 560-1. W. Hume's circuit of 530 m. in '83 and straightaway of 
583 m., to Sydney, in '84, 561. Day's rides of 100 m., to c'ose of '84, 561-2. Tri. tours in '85 
by young ladies of Ballarat and Stawell, 562. G. R. Broadbent, a grandfather, wheels 17,600 m. 
in 3 years, 562. R. O. Bishop's 3 years' record of 13,352 m. in Victoria and Tasmania, 56^. 
Mileage of T. F. Hallam, P. J. Bowen, and other riders of Hobart, 563-4. J. Copland's '84 
tri. tour of 12S2 m., Sydney to Melbourne and back, 564-5. S. to M. bi. rides by A. Edwards, 
G. L. Budds and J. F. Rugg, 565-6. The longest straightaway trail in Australia, 670 m., 
Stawell to Sydney, made in Mar., '86, by M. Thomfeldt and C. H. Lyne, 565-6. New 
Zealand's advantages for cycling, 566-7, 570 (sec also 652). J. F. Norris's account of 242 m. 
tour in '82, and of 100 m. riders in '84, 567. J. Fitton's 70b m. tour at the close of 'S3, 567-8. 
Long rides from Christchurch by H. J. Jenkins and F. W. Painter, 568-9. W. H. Lang- 
down's 12 months' record of 8940 m. on a single bicycle, including a tour of 55S m. in the 
autumn of '85, 569-70. Guide-books for the Antipodes, 570 (see also 695-6). Conclusion of T. 
Stevens's round-the-world tour : Persia, Afghanistan, India, China and Japan, Mar. to Dec, 
'86, 570-2. (Pp. 530-53 were electrotyped m Feb., '86; pp. 554-69 in Nov. ; pp. 570-2 in Jan., 



xviii TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 

'87 ; 37.350 words, incl. only 300 of coarse type. First 3 pp., in Outing, Aug., '84 ; last 3 pp. 
in IV/teehiien's Gazette, Feb., '87.) 

XXXIII. SUMMARY BY STATES, 673-590: Maine index, 573. F. A Elwell's 
Kennebec and Moosehaad Lake parties of 'S4-5, 57J-4. W. B. Page's '86 tour, 574-5. Guides 
and maps, 575. New Hampshire index, 575. Various tourists' reports of wlieellng in the 
White Mtns., 'Si to '86, 575-7. Guides and maps, 577. Vermont index, 578. Various reports 
from the Green Mtns., Conn. Valley and Lake Champlain, 578-9. Massachusetts index, 579. 
My latest explorations around Springfield, at end of '86, 579-So. Reference-books, 581. Rhode 
Island and Connecticut indexes, 581. My '86 ride across Conn., with other reports, 581-2. 
New York index, 5S2. Corrections and changes for the Kingsbridge region, 582-3. New 
ferries and r. r. lines, 5S3-4. " Long Island Road-Book," 584. Latest reports about Central 
Park and Prospect Park, 5S5-6. Club-house changes, 5S6. Pahsades route to Nyack, and 
good road thence to Suffern and Port Jervis, 5S6-7. Chautauqua Lake and Buffalo, 587-8. 
New Jersey index, 5S8. Recommendation of East Orange as a pleasant place for ladies' lessons 
in tricycling, 588. Best routes betwe&n Newark and New York, 588-9. Pennsylvania, Dela- 
ware and Maryland indexes, 589. District of Columbia, Virginia and Kentucky indexes, 590. 
Scheme for a straightaway race through the Shenandoah, 590. Kentucky routes by P. N. 
Myers, 590. Time and space cut short my roll of States, 590. (Written, Nov. 22 to Dec. 31, 
'86. Electro, in Dec, '86, and Jan., '87 ; 16,000 words, incl. only 300 of coarse type. See p. 710.) 

XXXIV. THE TRANSPORTATION TAX, 591-COO: Important distinction be- 
tween r. r. and s. s. baggage, 591. Power of each individual tourist to resist an extra-baggage 
tax on water-routes, 591. S. s. lines pledged by ma to the free-list, 592. League's arrange- 
ments with a few s. s. agents, 593. Scheme of r. r. trunk lines granting concessions to League, 
594. Ah^habetical lists of r. r.'s which seek the patronage of bicyclers, 594. Rules and limits 
for handiuig bicycles on r. r. trains, 595. Tariff-charging roads, 596. Liberal policy of South- 
ern lines, 597. Free carriage in Canada, 59S. C. T. C. table of r. r. rates in Great Britain, 598. 
Practices of the British s. s. lines, home and foreign, 599. Customs regulations of France, 
Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Mexico, Canada and the U. S., 599-600. 
(Electro, in July, '86; Sgoo words, incl. only 50 of coarse type.) 

XXXV. THE HOTEL QUESTION, 601-014: My hatred of the bed-bug and hum- 
bug policy called "reduced rates," 601. Testimony of IVJucling, Bi. World and others 
against the C. T. C.'s cheap device for securing cold victuals and contempt, 602, 604. A plea 
for League influence in raising the standard of country taverns, 603. The special comforts and 
privileges needed by touring wheelmen, 602, 604, 606, 614. Landlords' estimate of patrons who 
ask for " tlie leavings," 605. A reformed formula for hotel certificate, 605. Distinction between 
city and country hostelries, 606. "Special rates" proper for special occasions only, C07. 
Analysis of the "C. T. C. tariff" for Great Britain and France, 607. Proof that it is more 
expensive than the standard $1 rate of America, 60S. California's certificate against " League 
hotels," 609. List of towns whose hotel-keepers (146) have subscribed for this book, 609. Rea- 
sons why it should be kept for consultation iu the hotel-offices of as many towns as possible, 610. 
Restaurants and lodging-places in New York City, 611. Index to hotels named in this book, 
612. A plea for quiet bed-rooms and portable bath-tubs, 614. (Electro, in July, '86; 12,000 
words. See later testimony against the " danger-board hotels " of the C. T. C, pp. 639-41.) 

XXXVI. THE LEAGUE OF AMERICAN WHEELMEN, 615-633: Organized 
at Newport, May 31, 'So, to protect cyclers' rights upon the road, 615. Badges, 616. Annual 
meetings, '8i to '86, 616-18. Geographical statistics of membership, 617-18. Evolution of 
L. A. IV. BuUeti7i from Bi. World, Wlieel xa\A amateur gazette, 618-20. Facts and opinions 
about this official weekly, 620. Two chief arguments for the attraction of members, 621. Sum- 
mary of constitution, 622-4. Form of application for membership, including the definition of 
" amateur," 624. Road-books published by the State Divisions, 625. Pamphlet issues of the 
League, 625. Local election reform by the New York Division, 626. Seven annual boards of 
executive officers, 18S0-87, 626. Committeemen and State officers in service Oct. 30, '86, 627. 
Expulsion of all the swift racers for offending against " amateurism," 628. Powerlessness of 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. xix 

the wheel and sporting press, 630. Abolition of " amateurism " needed before racers can be 
classed on their merits, 630, 633. MINOR CYCLING INSTITUTIONS, 631-52. "Ameri- 
can Cyclists' Union " formed, to help the Springfield tournament, 631. Definitions and road- 
racing rules, 632. Failure of its " promateur plan " and of its attempts against the League, 633. 
" Canadian Wheelmen's Association," 633-6. Membership statistics of the English " Cyclists' 
Touring Club," 636. Summary of its governing rules, 637. Uniform and badges, 639. Suf- 
ferers' testimony against its " danger-board hotels," 639. Financial standing as a " co-operative 
tailoring concern," 641. Its social status in America, 642. Alphabetical list of its councilors, 
in Apr., '86, 645. Local and general officers of the English " National Cyclists' Union," '84 
and '86, 646. Objects and mode of government, 647. Financial dilemma caused by " amateur- 
ism," 64S. Unanswerable logic of the abolitionists, 649. Publications, library, medal and 
danger-boards, 650. Wheelmen's unions in Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, Switzerland, 
New Zealand, Australia and Ireland, 651-2. (Electro, in Nov., '86 ; 34,800 words. First part, 
from "Wheelmen's Reference Book," pub. May, '86. See pp. 593-9, 677, 691.) 

XXXVII. LITERATURE OF THE WHEEL, 653-700: Argument for the free 
advertising of all books and papers devoted to cycling, 653. List of American and English 
journals, Aug. i, '86, 654. American books and pamphlets in the market, Aug. i, '86, 655. Am. 
Bi. Journal, lVluelin:in and the less-distinguished dead of the journalistic cemetery, 655-60. 
American Cycling Press in Aug., '85, 661-72. Detailed account of books, pamphlets and other 
advertising prints in America, 673-So. English books, maps and papers, 6S1-S8. British and 
Australian journalism, 6S8-96. Continental publications, 697-700. General guides, 700. (Electro. 
in Aug. and Sept., '86, with corrections in Dec. ; 42,750 words. See pp. xciv., 710.) 

XXXVIII. THIS BOOK OF MINE, AND THE NEXT, 701-733: Explanation 
and warning, 701. Unique pecuniary ideal, 701. Germ and conception, 702. Early notions 
and influences, 702. Arrangement with Col. Pope, 703. Moral support of prospectus, 703. A 
prophecy from Boston, 704. How " 300 " fixed me for " 3000," 704. Success of preliminary 
canvass, 705. Formal promise to finish, 705. Attraction of English patrons, 706. Gazette 
help at Springfield, 706. Defense of the WheeVs free adv., 707. Press encouragement at Bos- 
ton and elsewhere, 707. Ineffectiveness of " newspaper talk," 70S. Indifference of " the 
trade," 709. Progress in writing and electrofyping, 710. Work of the Springfield Printing Co., 
710. Col. Pope's reply to second proposal, 711. Condemnation from competent judges, 711. 
Harmlessness of my "Columbia" adv., 712. Independence of all Popes and powers, 713. 
Objections to gift-taking, 713. Need of private help and criticisms, 714. Costs and conditions 
of road-book making, 715. Proposals for " My Second Ten Thousand," 716. Request for per- 
sonal statistics, 717. Hints to authors and publishers, 718. The cycling press and its "free 
adv.," 718. The doctrine of intelligent selfishness, 719. How I got leisure for touring, 720. 
JVorld experiences as a non-competitor, 721. Elective honors of college, 722. Illustrations 
from genealogy, 722. Preference for small and special tasks, 723. Involved beyond my wishes, 
724. Anecdote of Gen. Grant, 724. Delay and worry caused by " side-issues," 725. A polit- 
ical interruption, 726. The range of my acquaintance, 726. " Literary " types and comparisons, 
727. The significance of " society," 728. My personal relations with cyclers, 729. Sincerity 
and its compensations, 730. The pleasures of speaking squarely, 731. Chances on the down- 
grade, 732. Straight words for the finish, 733. (Written in Sept. and electrotyped in Oct., '86 ; 
29,400 words. Special ed. of 500 copies printed Dec. 3. See p. 710.) 

XXXIX. THE THREE THOUSAND SUBSCRIBERS, 734-764: Alphabetical 
list of 3196 " copartners " in the publication of this book : A, 734 ; B, 735 ; C, 738 ; D, 741 ; 
E, 742; F, 743; G, 744; H, 745; I, J, 74S; K, 749; L, 750; M, 751; N, O, P, 754 ; R,756; 
S- 757 i T, 760; U, V, 761 ; W, 762 ; Y, Z, 764. My "prospectus of Dec. 3, '83," was first 
published in the IVlieel ol Jan. 25, '84 ; and my first 1000 subscribers were enrolled on Apr. 9 
(74 days later), 2000 on Oct. 18(38 weeks), and 3000 on July 4, '85 (75 weeks). On the last day 
of Feb., '84, which was 5 weeks from the opening of the canvass, the sub. list stood at 599 ; and 
its monthly growth from that point may be shown as follows : Mar., 273 — 872 ; Apr., 281 — 
H53; May, 193—1346; June, 85— 1431; July, 113— 1544 ; Aug., 257—1801; Sept., 147— 194S ; 



XX TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 

Oct., 65— 2013 ; Nov., 82 — 2055; Dec, 177 — 2272; Jan., 112 — 23S4; Feb., 113 — 2497; Mar., 
149 — 2646; Apr., 139 — 2787; May, loi — 2888; June, 87 — 2975; July, 12S — 3103; Aug., 46 — 
3149; Sept., 43— 3192; Oct., 37— 3229; Nov., 35— 3264; Dec, 54— 331S; Jan., 39— 3357; 
Feb., 25 — 33S2 ; Mar., 36—3418 ; Apr., loS — 3526. From May i to Dec. 31, '86, there were 50 
accessions, at ^1.50, raising the total of the "autograph edition " to 3576. (Electro, in Feb., 
'86 ; about 19,000 words. See pp. 794-6, for supplementary list of 200 names.) 

XL. DIRECTORY OF WHEELMEN, 763-799: Names of 3200 subscribers, 
groupei according to residence-towns, which are alphabetized by States, in the following geo- 
graph'cil order : Me., 15 towns, 45 subscribers, 765 ; N. H., 14 t., 50 s., 766 ; Vt., 14 t., 47 s., 
766 ; Mass., 89 t., 341 s., 766 ; R. I., 5 t., 20 s., 769 ; Ct., 32 t., 171 s., 769 ; N. Y., 106 t., 671 
s., 770; N. J., 55 t., 257 s., 776; Pa., 96 t., 382 s., 77S; Del., 2 t., 4 s., 7S1 ; Md., 8 t., 81 s., 
7S1 ; Dist. of Col., 2 t., 37 s., 782 ; W. Va., 4 t., 6 s., 7S2 ; Va., 10 t., 17 s., 782 ; N. C, 2 t., 
6 s., 7S2 ; S. C, 2 t., 4 s., 7S2 ; Ga., 4 t., 11 s., 7S2 ; Fla., 2 t., 2 s., 7S3 ; Ala., 4 t., 12 s., 7S3 ; 
Miss., 3 t., 4 s., 7S3 ; La., i t., 5 s., 7S3 ; Tex., 6 t., 9 s., 7S3 ; Ark., 2 t., 7 s., 7S3 ; Tenn., 3 t., 
26 s., 783; Ky., IS t., 53 s., 7S3 ; O., 4S t., 154 s., 784 ; Mich., 21 t., 66 s., 7S5 ; Ind., 21 t., 60 
s., 785 : I.I., 25 t., 116 s., 7S6-7; Mo., 8 t., 25 s., 7S7 ; Ln., 14 t., 20 s., 7S'7 ; Wis., 11 t., 16 s., 
787; Minn., 13 t., 22 s., 7S7; Dak., 3 t.,5 s., 7S8; Neb., 2 t.,2 s., 7S8 ; Kan., 14 t., 21 s.,788; 
(Ind. Ten, o); N. Mex., i t., i s., 7S8 ; Col., 4 t., 9 s., 788 ; Wy., 3 t., 9 s., 78S ; Men., 3 t., 
6 s., 7SS; Id., 2 t., 14 s., 78S; Wash., 3 t., 3 s., 788; Or.,8 t., 28 s., 78S; Utah, 2 t., 7 s., 7S8 ; 
(Nev., ot., OS., 7S9) ; Ariz., i t., i s., 7S9 ; Cal., 9 t., 22 s., 7S9 ; Ontario, 21 1., 79 s., 7S9 ; Mani- 
toba, I t., I s., 790 ; Quebec, i t., 5 s., 790 ; New Brunswick, 2 t., 6 s., 790; Nova Scotia, 9 t., 
37 s., 790; Bermuda, 3 t., 5 s., 790; Mexico, i t., i s., 790; England, 61 t., 13S s., 790; Scot- 
land, 6 t., 12 s., 792 ; Ireland, 5 t., 7 s., 792 ; Continental Europe, 9 t., g s., 792 ; Asia, 4 t., 
4 s., 792 ; Australia, 12 t., 86 s., 793 ; New Zealand, 5 t., 24 s., 794. Supplemeutary List 0/ 
Subscribers {¥ eh. to Nov., '86), 794-6. Trade Directory : Alphabetical list of 122 subscribers 
in whose offices this book may be consulted, 796-7. Geographical list of the same, 798-9. 
(Electro. March to May, '86, except last six pages in Nov. ; 22,000 words.) 

XLI. THE LAST WORD, 800: Pinaforic chant at the League's first annual ban- 
quet, Newport, May 31, '80. (Electro, in Nov., '86; 100 words.) 

A summing-up of the estimates for the 41 chapters shows a total of 585,400 words, whereof 
362,400 are in fine type (" nonpareil ") and 223,000 in larger type ("brevier"). I have esii- 
mated the latter at 600 words to the page (44 lines of 14 words each), and the nonpareil at 900 
words to the page (53 lines of 17 words each), except that the 66 pages devoted to subscribers' 
names have been credited with 18,400 words less than the latter estimate would give them. 
The half-dozen blank lines at the top of each chapter, and the short blanks at ends of para- 
graphs, are fully offset by the repetitions of chapter-titles at the tops of pages. Owing to the 
great number of abbreviations in last ten chapters, I ihir-k their number of ncnp areil words ex- 
ceeds the estimate, — for my actual count of p. 497 revealed 10S8 words. On the other hand, 
the brevier words may fall a trifle short of the estimate, — for actual count of p. 35Srevealedonly 
573. My printers have charged me with 372 brevier pages ; and a multiplication of that num- 
ber by 600 shows 223,200 words, or almost exactly the result gained by adding the chapter esti- 
mates. Of the 311,600 words in first 29 chapters (472 pp.), all but 92,600 are in brevier; while, 
of the 273,800 words in last 12 chapters (328 pp.), which may be classed as an appendix, only 
4000 are in brevier. My own road-reports and wheeling experiences are almost all included in 
the 181,000 brevier words of the first 26 chapters (390 pp.), which also contain 77,000 nonpareil 
words, mostly given to others' reports and general information. In Chaps. 30-33 (pp. 473-590) 
are 104,850 words, almost wholly given to others' perronal statistics ; and Chaps. 34-37 (pp. 591- 
699) contain 97,550 words of general information. Of the 273,800 words in last 12 chapters, the 
29,400 ill Chap. 38 are the only ones personal to myself. Adding these to the 6?oo brevier 
words of Chap. 27, and the 1 8 1,000 before specified, gives a total of 217,200 words which refer 
in some way to my own wheeling. Even if the 11,000 words about " Curl," and the 20,000 
brevier words about " the Castle," be charged to me as " personal," my entire share in the book 
rises to only 248,200 words, which is much less than half its text (585,400). 



Scope of the 
volume. 



Assumptions for a special 
class of travelers. 



PREKACK. 

This is a book of American roads, for men who travel on the bicycle. Its 
ideal is that of a gazetteer, a dictionary, a cyclopjedia, a statistical guide, a 
thesaurus of facts. The elaborateness of its indexing shows that it is designed 
less for reading than for reference, — less for amusement than for instruction, — and debars any one 
from obJ3Cting to the multiplicity of its details. No need exists for a weary wading through the 
mass of these by any seeker for special knowledge. The information which he wants can be 
found at once, if contained in the book at all ; and the pages which do not interest him can be 
left severely alone. 

In reporting my own travels, I have assumed that the reader 
(as a bicycler who may plan to ride along the same routes) desires 
to know just what I was most desirous of having advance knowl- 
edge of, in every case ; and I have tried to tell just those things, in the simplest language and 
the most compact form. I have accounted no fact too trivial for record, if it could conceiv- 
ably help or interest wheelmen when touring in the locality to which it relates ; and I insist that 
no critic, save one whose road-experience makes him more competent than I am to predict what 
such tourists want to know, has any right to censure me on this account, as " lacking a sense of 
perspective." My power to please these particular people, by offering them these microscopic 
details, can be proved by experiment only ; but I object in advance to having any one meanwhile 
misrepresent me as endeavoring to please people in general. " The general reader " may justly 
demand of the critic that he give warning against a writer-of-travels, as well as against a novel- 
ist or verse-maker, who is so precise and exhaustive as to be tedious ; but a chronicler who 
avowedly seeks to be precise and exhaustive, in compiling a special sort of gazetteer, — and who 
disclaims any desire of restricting its scope to points which are salient and notably significant 
and universally interesting, — may as justly demand of the critic that he do not condemn the 
work " because unsuited to the general reader." 

Fair warnings for "the I ^^ regards the latter all-powerful personage, I recognize that 

" , „ " his money is as good as anybody's " ; and I intend, mcidentally, 

° ■ I to sell him a good many copies of the book ; but I am bound that 

he shall buy it with his eyes open, if he buys it at all, and shall have no pretext for pretending that 
I catered to his taste in preparing it, or relied upon his patronage in making it a success. I aim, 
rather, to pique his curiosity by proving that profit may be gained, in defiance of him, from the 
support of a world of readers whose existence he never dreamed of; and I expect that, when- 
ever his curiosity forces him to pay me tribute, in order to study the manners and customs of 
those readers who inhabit this new " world on wheels," he will be civil enough to remember 
the motive which induced his expenditure, and to refrain from reviling me as having baited him 
in by false pretencss, or failed to give him his money's worth. As regards " the general 
reader," then, I say: "Caveat emptor I Having paid up, let him shut up! If I welcome 
him to my show, it is avowedly for no other reason than that his coin may help fill the yawning 
chasm at my banker's. I have not planned the performance to please him, nor have I varied my 
ideal of it one iota to avoid the danger of his derision. I shall be glad, incidentally, to win his 
good-will ; but, if his ill-will be aroused instead, I protest against his proclaiming it in such way 
as to obscure this truth: that what I chiefly aim to win is the good-will of the 3000 wheelmen 
who have subscribed to my scheme in advance, and of the 300,000 wheelmen whom those sub- 
scribers represent." 

"Well-written and read.ible beyond the common " was the verdict 

which the reviewer of the Times passed upon my opening chapter, when 
it first appeared, in a magazine, four years ago ; but I have not en- 



Attempts at vc7-bal 
attractiveness. 



deavored to make any of my regular touring reports " readable," to the uninitiated, save only 



Anmsemetit and instruction 
for non-cyclers. 



iv TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 

the one called " Straightaway for Forty Days." This, as a description of the first time in the 
earth's history when its surface was marked for as much as 1400 miles by the continuous trail 
of a bicycle, seemed worthy of exceptional treatment, by reason of the chance it gave for im- 
pressing the imagination of the unconverted with the peculiar charm, and the magnificent possi- 
bilities, of "wheeling large." I do not assert that my actual description possesses any such 
power,— but smiply that, in this one case, I did endeavor to formulate my enthusiasm. The 
305th page, in this description, has literary force enough to bring back clearly, before my own 
mind, the strangest scene in my long tour ; and so, without asserting that other readers should 
accord it the graphic quality, I mention it as the only page on which I have in fact attempted to 
do any verbal scene-painting. 

' As regards my two extraneous chapters (pp. 407-472), 

" the general reader " is quite as likely as the cycling reader 
to be amused by what I have said there concerning the dear 
dog that I loved and the queer house that I live in ; while, as regards my statistics of roads they 
necessarily have value to thousands of people who know nothing of the joys of cyclin- Each 
year finds a larger number of Americans seeking recreation by pedestrian and equestrfan tours, 
and by carnage-drives across long stretches of country ; while even the " horsey " intellects of 
hackmen and teamsters (and their fashionable imitators who laboriously exhibit themselves on 
" tally-ho coaches ") may have power to recognize some statements in this book as worth in- 
corporating into their stock of stable knowledge. Indeed, as was said in the preface of 
" Roughing It," by Mark Twain, " information appears to stew out of me naturally, like the 
precious ottar of roses out of the otter." Were cycling destined to immediate disappearance, this 
volume (the only existing one of its kind) would none the less deserve a place in every American 
reference-hbrary, as a veritable colossus of roads. 

As regards my style of expression, though I may not have mastered 
the difficult trick of calling a spade a spade, I have at least used every 
effort to master it, from the day in 1S60 when I first took up the pen ; 
and I have striven to win nothing else of the literary art. The putting of ideas into written form 
has ever been to me a painful process, which I have sought to shorten as much as possible. I 
have always kept quiet unless I had something to say ; and, though this rule may not always have 
made my actual words seem to other people worth the saying, it has certainly prevented me from 
being classed with " the mob of gentlemen who write with ease." Chatterers, for the mere 
pleasure of listening to the noises of their own mouths, may perform an acceptable function in 
amusing folks who are too stupid even to chatter ; but that function is not mine. I have about 
as little liking for " literary men " as has the elder Cameron of Pennsylvania, and am often 
tempted to apply to them the same damnatory adjective. In fact, I hardly know of a class of 
fellow-humans whom I like less, — except " the political machinists " of the Cameionian type, 
and perhaps, also, " the athletes " and " sporting men." 

My book aims to be practical rather than " literary," and my 
desire to see it serve as an effective instrument for " setting the 
world on wheels " forces me to be very explicit in showing that 
I am as different a person as possible from the " author " who is presumably conjured up in 
the minds of most men by the first sight of its title. I am not " an athlete," and have never 
attempted anything difficult upon the bicycle. Whatever tours I have taken with it, — whatever 
pleasures or advantages I have gained from it, — may be readily taken and gained anew by any 
man of average strength and activity. Whether or not I may be believed to resemble Gold- 
smith's more distinguished "Traveler" in being "remote, unfriended, solitary," it is certain 
that I resemble him in being " slow." The restless rush for the cemetery, which the English- 
speaking men of to-day seem absorbingly anxious to reach " in advance of all foreign competi- 
tion," is a race I have no share in. If my book were big enough to momentarily block the 
progress of the generation now on the down-grade of life, I would wish it might in that moment 
say to them : " Look here at the bicycle! It is a slower and more comfortable vehicle than 
he hearse, into which you are all trying to crowd yourselves, with such unseemly haste I " 



Simplicity of litei'- 
ary ideal. 



The bicycle'' s slowness its 
charm for the elderly. 



The selling (j/" 30,000 books 
less notable than Ihe pledg- 
ing 0/ Tpoo subscribers. 



Business necessity of my 
personal revelations. 



PREFACE. vii 

Hence I say that my longest tour on the wheel shrinks 
into insignificance beside this novel tour de force , — this strange 
showing of a world-wide brotherhood which gives advance-sup- 
porters to an unknown American book, not only in every State 
and Territory of the Union, but 400 of them outside it : in Canada and Great Britain, in 
Australia and New Zealand, in Continental Europe, in Asiatic Turkey, Persia and Japan. 
Whether or not I shall reap the expected reward for this exploit (by pleasing these 3000 stran- 
gers so well that they will quickly forc3 a sale of 30,000 books for me), experiment only can de- 
cide ; but I wish now to record the opinion that, if I do reap such reward, it will not seem to 
me so phenomenal a proof of the peculiarly personal power of cycling enthusiasm as does this 
preliminary exploit itself. I wish, too, that before any critic hastens, ofl hand, to condemn this 
expectation as a colossal conceit, he will carefully consider whether, from his knowledge of the 
human animal's indisposition to pledge money for anything unknown, my scheme for selling 
30,000 books, by a simple appeal to the friendly sentiment of 3003 strangers, is really so unbusi- 
ness-like and unpromising and unreasonable, as v/as my first step for proving the substantial sym- 
pathy of those 3000. 

I have a right to insist that that solid phalanx of supporters 
shall never be ignored in the judgment of any one who assumes 
fairly to judge the book which has been produced by their en- 
couragement. While declaring that so great a phalanx could not have been summoned, by the 
mere push of a pen, in behalf of any other sport than cycling, I will not affect a mock-modest 
belief that even this phalanx of cyclers could thus have been summoned, in the absence of a pre- 
vailing opinion that there was a man behind the pen. I feel, therefore, that I ought not to be 
censured or ridiculed, because, as a mere matter of business, I devote considerable fine type, in 
Chapter xxxviii. (pp. 701-733), to telling them who this man is. Unless denial \e. made in advance 
that I have any right to persuade these people to serve me freely as book-agents, my mere attempt 
to placate them, by showing the sort of person they are serving, cannot be condemned. I insist 
that I am not trying there to exhibit myself to other people ; and that " the general reader " is 
not bound there to search in pursuit of something else. If he be curious to study "the growth 
of an idea " which has (by imperceptible gradations, and in spite of my hatred of publicity and 
" business") led me into a scheme whose success now demands that I strive to make myself 
the most notorious inhabitant of the " wheel world," he can find the full details there given ; 
but he must remember that I do not assume his curiosity in them, and do not give them for any 
other than a purely practical purpose. If I am to sell 30,000 books without resorting to the book- 
stores, — without granting discounts to cycling tradesmen or premiums to private agents, — with- 
out paying much advertising money to the wheel papers and none at all to the general press — it 
is plainly incumbent upon me to tell my prospective assistants exactly what I want them to do, 
and exactly why I hope for their help in victoriously violating the traditional rules of the book- 
business. The gist of my endeavor is to ensure conviction that the three years demanded by this 
book have been spent solely in their interest, — that I have constructed it with absolute person.il 
independence and honesty : 

" My motives pure; my satire free from gall ; chief of my golden rules I this install : 
^Malice icnvards notie, and charity for all.^ " 



Typography and 
proof-reading. 



It is due to my printers to say that, as they have obeyed the contract 
calling for close adherence to copy, even in the smallest details of punctua- 
tion, I alone am responsible for variations in " style." My excuse for these, 
is, not simply that the original act of writing has extended from '79 'o '86, but chiefly that the 
electrotyping itself has extended through nearly two years. So, as my book has grown farther 
and farther beyond the limits first set for it, I have resorted more and more to abbreviations and 
condensed forms of expression. The proportion of fine type, too, has been vastly increased, and 
the indexes of names have been unpleasantly " jammed," in a similar effort to reduce the bulk. 
Even " Mr," has been banished, as not worth its room. By two personal readings of the proofs, 



viii TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 

I have been able to " fill in " nearly every line which most books would have wasted in blanks; 

and, as my excellent proof-readers have perused each page four times, I think that few purely 

typographic errors can have escaped their well-trained eyes. As the eyes of a great majority of 

my other readers have not yet been dimmed by forty years' usage, I trust that even my finest 

type will not prove trying to them, for all of it is clear-cut and has been carefully put to press. 

/-. .- J " The mob of gentlemen who write with ease " reviews which censure and 

Ciii^srestions to , ,-,■,,, ,■ , ,, , 

. short notes which tease, ui the literary departments ' of journalism, will not 

' ■ think me inconsistent, I trust, in presenting them with the book, or with speci- 
men chapters thereof, even while proclaiming that its chief significance is not " literary." It has 
been said of old-time that " the title, publisher's name and price of a new book or pamphlet, 
when clearly printed in a public journal, form alone a very valuable notice, bolh for reader and 
for author " ; and I therefore hope that the reviewers whom I hurl my work at may be willing 
to advertise it thus briefly, even though they say nothing more. Such simple statement of fact 
will be accepted by me as fully covering every obligation in the case ; but, if more be said, I have 
a right to ask that regard shall be paid to my own theory of my Vi'ork. The theory may be called 
bad and the work bad, but I may not be fairly called to account for not working on some other 
theory. For reasons by no means " literarj'," I think many reviewers may find my facts sug- 
gestive and my opinions provocative of comment ; but I expect from them merely " the sort of 
attention which is always bestowed upon a man who knows what he wants and shows that he 
means to have it." 

T^i,..,, i,„f..^ f„.. I The editor of a moribund magazine, to wliom I once tried to sell the 

I h) ee hopes for . , » > 

•' manuscript of my Kentucky chapter (in the humble hope that he might, by 

I It. JU cie. I printing it, help hasten the deserved death, which soon happened), said, 
when he remailed the pages : "Though not without merit, they have a little too much of the 
Anabas..jac flavor of Enieitihen exelaimei stathmotis petite to interest the average reader." The 
remark was an eminently truthful one, and it offers me a fair excuse for saying that, as I am quite 
unambitious in regard to posthumous remembrance, my ghost will be quite content in case this 
present " Story of the Ten Thousand " shall last as long as Xenophon's. Nevertheless, as a liv- 
ing modern man, I shall be vastly disappointed if I fail to make more money from it than did that 
ancient Grecian from his immortal chronicle. Besides this prospective profit, there are tvv-o things 
which I hope for : first, that I may always keep my private life and my family name " out of the 
newspapers" ; second, that I may always live " on the Square." 

Karl Kron. 

Washington Square, N. Y., May 4, 18S7. 

Subscribers who receive copies of Preface and Contents-Table {luhereof I print 
an extra cd. of 10,000, as an adv. of the book) are invited to distribute the same 
among their cycling acquaintances and other possible purchasers. I shall account 
it a special favor if they will shotu the book itself to local librarians and hotel-keep- 
ers, and xvill supply me with the addresses of zvhcelmcn who are likely to be inter- 
ested in my circulars and specimen pages. Publishers of catalogues and price-lists 
in the cycling trade are invited to insert thei-ein the folloioing free adv., — on the 
theory that they will help their crwn business by helping the sale of such a book : 

Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicvcle. By Karl Kron, author of " Four Years at Yale, 
by a Graduate of '6g." Cloth bound, gilt top, heliotype frontispiece, 41 chapters, 90S pages, 
675,000 words, elaborate indexes, no advertisements. Mailed on receipt of monej'-order for 
$2, by the publisher, Karl Kron, at tlie University Building, Wasliington Square, N'ew 
York City, D. Analytical contents-table, descriptive circulars and specimen pages sent free. 

An electrotype of same size as present page, giving names and prices of all American cycling 
books and papers now in the market, will be freely supplied by me to any publisher who is will- 
ing to print from it. A proof will be mailed on application. I will also freely send proofs of any 
pages which any one may wish to reprint, without cutting into his own book for the " copy." 



TITLES OF THE 42 CHAPTERS. 

"Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle " (908 pages of 675,000 words ; pub. May 25, 
1887 ; price $2) is characterized as "A Gazetteer 0/ American Roads in Many States ; an En- 
cydopcedia 0/ lV>ieeling Process in Many Countries." Of its 20 local indexes, the chief one 
gives 8418 references to 3482 towns ; and its chief personal index gives 3126 references to 1476 
individuals. There are 1555 subjects catalogued in its general index, with 3330 references, and 
its table-of-contents shows 857 descriptive head-hnes to principal paragraphs. An idea of the 
book's general scope, and of the regions and subjects to which it gives greatest prominence, may 
be gained by inspecting the titles of its 41 chapters, which stand as follows: 

On the Wheel (essay) — After Bher (verse) — White Flannel and Nickel Plate 
— A Birthday Fantasie (verse) — Four Seasons on a Forty-Six — Columbia, No. 234 — 
My 234 Rides on " No. 234 " — Around New York — Out From Boston — The Environs 
OF Springfield — Shore and Hilltop in Connecticut — Long Island and Staten 
Island — Coastingon the Jersey Hills — Lake George and the Hudson — The Erie 
Canal and Lake Erie — Niagara and Some Lesser Waterfalls — Along the Poto- 
mac — Kentucky AND its Mammoth Cave — Winter Wheeling — In the Down East 
Fogs — Nova Scotia and the Islands Beyond — Straightaway for Forty Days — 
A Fortnight IN Ontario — From the Thousand Islands to the Natural Bridge — 
The Coral Reefs of Bermuda — Bull Run, Luray Cavern and Gettysburg — Bone- 
shaker Days — Curl, the Best of Bull-Dogs — Castle Solitude in the Metropolis 
— Long-Distance Routes and Riders — Statistics from the Veterans — British and 
Colonial Records — Australasian Reports — Summary by States — The Transpor- 
tation Tax — The Hotel Question — The League of American Wheelmen — Minor 
Cycling Institutions — Literature of the Wheel — This Book of Mine, and the 
Next — The Three Thousand Subscribers — Directory of Wheelmen — The Last 
Word (verse). These chapters cover 800 pp. of 585,000 words ; the Preface and Addenda, 
33 PP- of 27,000 words ; and the Indexes, 75 pp. 

"Ten Thousand Miles on a Slcycle " has been produced at an expense consid- 
erably in excess of $12,000 (representing a cash outlay of $6200, and four years' all-absorbing 
work). It will not be exposed at the bookstores, but an ultimate sale of 30,000 copies will be 
enforced by the unpaid efforts of the 3000 " co-partners " whose subscriptions combined to cause 
its publication. In more than 150 of the 852 towns represented on the subscription list, volun- 
teer agents of this sort have consented to serve regularly as depositaries. A circular containing 
their names will be mailed on application. The chief agencies are as follows : New York, 12 
Warren St., 313 W. 58th St., 49 Cortlandt st. ; Boston, 79 Franklin St., 509 Tremont St., 107 
Washington st. ; Baltimore, 2 & 4 Hanover st. ; Buffalo, 5S5 Main st. ; Chicago, 291 Wabash 
ave., 222 N. Franklin St., loS Madison St., 77 State st. ; Cincinnati, 6 E. 4th st. ; ClCYeland, 
1222 Euclid ave. ; Indianapolis, office of Wheelmen'' s Gazette, Sentinel Building ; Newark, 
Broad & Bridge sts. ; New Orleans, 115 Canal st. ; Philadelphia, 811 Arch st. ; Portland, Or., 
145 Fifth St. ; St. Louis, 310 N. Eleventh st. ; San Francisco, 228 Phelan Building; Wash- 
ington, 1713 New York ave. Booksellers wishing to fill orders from their customers will be 
allowed a deduction of 25 c. on each volume purchased at these places (merely to cover the cost 
of handling), but there will be no other " trade discounts," nor will the book be mailed to any 
one for less than $2. 

The volume is bound in dark blue muslin, smooth finish, with beveled edges and gilded top 
(size, 8 by 5 J by i\ inches; weight, 2 pounds), and is not disfigured by advertisements. Its only 
ornament is a photogravure portrait of the distinguished bull-dog (b. 1856, d. 1869), to whose 
memory the entire work is dedicated, and whose biography forms its most readable chapter. 
Copies will be sent for $2, post-paid to any post-office, or express-paid to any office of the Amer- 
ican Express Co. and many connecting expresses which allow the 15 c. mail-rate. 

Requests for forwarding the volume " on approval " (to be paid for subsequently or re- 
turned, — a month's inspection thus costing but 20 c.) can be granted only by the Publisher, 
" Karl Kron, at the University Building, New York City, D." 

(B) 



ON THE WHEEL. 9 

accredited with this result in the case of the women on the boats, but the fiery 
beverages dispensed at the lock-houses possibly have something to do with it 
in the case of the men. Even that mild decoction known as " bottled sarsapa- 
rilla," or " root beer," which is presumably kept on hand only to accommo- 
date the children of the fleet, is given a peppery addition by the bar-keepers 
of the canal. 

Of the numerous novel experiences I have met with in the course of a hun- 
dred miles of tow-path touring, the earliest was the most exciting, because of 
its suggestion of a tragic termination. I had passed many of the boat-pulling 
teams from the rear without a suspicion of trouble, but the very first pair of 
mules that I met face to face suddenly whirled about, and, tripping up their 
driver with the tug rope, sent him rolling over and over down through the 
weeds and brambles of a thirty-foot embankment. I shouted to the man to 
inquire if he was hurt or if he needed my help, but he answered me not a 
word. The force of life-long conviction that there existed only one responsible 
source-for all the evils in the world — namely, his mules — could not be upset by 
any such slight tumble. Getting his shaken body together, therefore, and scram- 
bling up the bank, he utterly ignored my existence or connection with the case, 
but poured forth a torrent of the most profoundly complicated cursing into 
the capacious ears of his team, simultaneously belaboring their well-tanned 
sides and quarters. The captain's wife, however, took a less mystical view 
of the matter. Recognizing in me the responsible cause of the mules' mis- 
behavior, she leveled against me a tirade of righteous though somewhat inco- 
herent indignation and abuse. The point of it was that I was liable to fine 
or imprisonment merely for having a vehicle on the i)ath, as I must well know 
from the warning sign-boards of the bridges, if haply I had ever learned to 
read ; that if the mules had seen fit to commit suicide by jumping into the 
canal or plunging down the bank, I should have had to pay the price thereof; 
and that, in general, only the extreme and unusual mildness of her disposition 
caused her to graciously refrain from springing ashore and dragging me off to 
jail forthwith. Thereafter, on the tow-path, I deferentially dismounted in the 
face of all approaching mules, though their drivers often persuasively shouted, 
"Come on, cap'n ! Don't stop for these damned mules! They can't get 
away with me. I'll risk 'em. I'll stand the damage." The remarks and 
comments of the people on the boats were almost always good-natured, gen- 
erally respectful, and rarely uncivil or sarcastic, even when designed to be 
jocular and to exhibit the smartness of the speaker. One form or another of 
" Wheredyecumfrum, judge?" and " IIo%\-furyergoin', major?" were the 
invariable inquiries, which " Schenectady " and " Buffalo " satisfactorily set- 
tled. I here call to mind the quaint observation of a certain tall humorist at the 
helm, who was inspired bv the presence of no other auditor than myself when 
he shouted, " I say, general, I wish I had one of them big, old-fashioned, cop- 
per cents ; I'd make you a present of it." Much richer than this was the 
caution deprecatingly administered to me (in a tone of friendly confidence, as 



WHITE FLANNEL AND NICKEL PLATE. 17 

garment used r.s an undershirt. - As for one's white flannel knee-breeches, 
by the time their waistband gets shrunk beyond the buttoning point, the 
breeches themselves become worn out and may wisely be torn into ra<Ts for 
the polishing of the nickel plate. 

Breeches, shirt, undershirt, drawers, socks and shoes, in addition to those 
worn by the rider, can be tied up tightly together in a roll, with comb, hair- 
brush, tooth-brush, sponge, soap and vaseline ; and around this in turn can 
be rolled his coat. Stout cords have seemed to me more satisfactory than 
leather straps in securing this roll to the handle-bar, or in slinging it over 
one's shoulder when coasting was to be indulged in. Straps always let the roll 
sag down too far on the brake, while by careful tying of good strings it can be 
kept well on top of the handle-bar, though the strings have to be tightened oc- 
casionally to check the sagging. An excellent device for preventing this is the 
Lamson patent " bicycle shawl-strap," of which I made satisfactory trial on 
my latest tour. The wires of this contrivance are so small that it can readily 
be put in the pocket or slung over the shoulder with the roll to which it is 
attached, whenever one desires to have his handle-bar free. In dismounting 
at noon to sit at a hotel table, one's coat may be easily assumed without dis- 
turbing the inner roll. I do not insist that this coat shall be made of white 
flannel, since it is not to be worn on the bicycle, but the lighter and shorter it 
is the better. A linen duster and a flannel jacket made without lining have 
in turn served me well. When the day's ride is ended, I take a sponge bath, 
apply vaseline to any bruised or sore spots, assume new clothes throughout 
and arrange to have the damp clothes I have been riding in properly dried 
during the night for use in the next day's ride. 

My wish always is in planning a tour to send my valise ahead of me where 
I may meet it at the end of the second or third day, but it is often impractica- 
ble to arrange any meeting of this sort when one starts out on an unexplored 
path, and in my last tour, which was an all-quiet one along the Potomac, I 
was five nights as well as five days away from my base of supplies. I suf- 
fered no special inconvenience, however, though my outfit was the simple 
one before described, with the addition of a razor and a third undershirt. 
I have never experimented with " M. I. P. " or other bags, which are designed 
to encumber the backbone or handle-bar or axle of the bicycle, and I never 
intend to. There seems no sense in handicapping one's wheel with the weight 
of a bag (letting alone its ugly appearance, and the awkwardness of climbing 
over it) when the coat or shirt which necessarily forms a part of the baggage 
will answer all the purposes of a bag. The necessities of touring are con- 
fined absolutely to the articles which I have named, and those can surely be car- 
ried more compactly and comfortably in a roll than in a bag. The luxuries of 
touring are innumerable, and nothing less than a valise, sent by express from 
place to place, can keep the bicycler supplied with any appreciable amount of 
them. A good wheelman, like a good soldier, should be proud to go in light 
marching order, carrying in compact form the things that he really needs, and 
2 



MV 234 RIDES ON ''NO. 234." 63 

almost every conceivable beverage that comes within reach. Water, ice- 
water, soda-water, mineral-water, lemonade, milk, chocolate, sarsaparilla, root- 
beer, lager, shandygaff, ale, porter, half-and-half, cider, and light wines, — all 
these " drinks " I swalloiv in great quantities, when heated by riding ; and I 
also delight in chopped ice, water-ices, ice-cream, melons, lemons, oranges, 
apples, and all sorts of juicy fruits. Solid food is of small consequence to 
me on a hot day's ride, but drink I must have and plenty of it. " Drink as 
little as possible " .'' Well, I should smile! Rather do I drink as much as 
possible, and thank Mother Nature betimes for the keen physical delight im- 
plied in the possession of so intense a healthy thirst simultaneously with the 
means of gratifying it healthily ! Your little riding-rules may do well enough 
for babes and sucklings of the tricycle. Dr. Richardson ; but don't you pre- 
sume to thrust them upon a six-thousand-mile bicycler like me ! How I wish 
that you, or some other abstemious Fellow (of the Royal Society, London), 
had tried to trundle a tricycle behind me for fifty miles through the blazing 
sands of Long Island on that historic " hottest day of seven years " ! Per- 
haps then you would have adopted my theory that thirst, under such circum- 
stances, is one of Nature's warning signals which it were dangerous to dis- 
regard. Perhaps, again, you would have preferred pertinaciously to die for 
your theory, even at the risk of being buried with Truth at the bottom of one 
of the numerous wells which I that day drank dry ! I'm sorry to appear 
uncivil, but my rage at your repressive rules must be given vent, and so I 
finally break out into rhyme in this way : — 

Just hear the roar, "Two-Thirty-Four," 

Of all these learned buffers, 
Who say they think 't is WTong to drink 

When raging thirst one suffers ! 
But you and I know that 's a lie, 

And so I shout out gladly : — 
" Dnnk all you can, my thirsty man, 

Nor choke in saddle sadly ! 
Don't ever fear good lager-beer, 

When there 's no water handy ; 
Drink pints of ale, milk by the pail, 

But never rum nor brandy ! 
Drnik half-and-half, or shandygaff, 

Or lemonade, or cider ; 
Drink till your thirst is past its worst, 

Then mount, a freshened rider ! 
Keep fairly cool (that is the rule) , 

Curse not, nor fume, nor worry ; 
(My ' fume ' joke means tobacco smoke) ; 

Nor take risks in a hurry ; 
Nor tear your shirt while on a spurt ; 

Nor clothes while in a snarl don ; 
Just make no fuss ; just be like us — 

' Two-Thirty-Four ' and Karl Kron." 



XVII. 

KENTUCKY AND ITS MAMMOTH CAVE.^ 

The Blue-Grass region of Kentucky, so celebrated for its beauty, never 
had a better reason for feeling proud of its good-looks than on the opening 
week of summer in 1882, when I for the first time cast my eyes upon the 
same. May had been almost continuously damp and rainy until its very close, 
so that every sort of vegetation seemed as fresh and luxuriant as possible. 
The foliage of the trees — which do not often form thickly-interlacing "woods," 
but stand out alone in their individual majesty, as if some magnificent land- 
scape-gardener had designedly stationed them there to form the symmetrical 
landmarks and ornaments of an immense park — was brilliantly verdant ; and 
the tall grass, which gives its peculiar name to that section of the State, shone, 
if I may say so, with the bluest green imaginable. Great fields of grain, also, 
waved beneath the breeze, in graceful emerald undulations, up and down the 
soft slopes of the hills ; and whitewashed fences " far along them shone " in the 
summer sunlight. Outside the towns and villages the houses were numerous 
enough to keep the tourist assured that he was traveling in a settled country ; 
but they were so neat and trim, and withal so scattered, as readily to har- 
monize with the fancy that their inhabitants must be salaried " keepers of the 
Blue-Grass Park," instead of ordinary farmers, who tilled the soil simply for 
the sake of securing such profit as they could wrest from its reluctant grasp. 
The time for sowing had gone by, and the time for reaping had not come. 
There was no bustle or activity in the fields, — not " a shadow of man's ravage " 
anywhere. Nature was doing all the work; and a blessed atmosphere of 
peace, prosperity, and contentment seemed to pervade the landscape. For 
purposes of spectacular display the Blue-Grass Region was at its best; and 
not again in a dozen years would a bicycler who sought to explore it in sum- 
mer-time be likely to be favored with as cool and comfortable temperature 
as generally favored me during the eight days while I pushed my wheel 
340 m. among the Kentucky hills. 

A dutiful desire to " help represent the East " in the third annual parade 
of the League had caused me to sojourn in Chicago for the last three days of 
spring, during which I made trial of its streets and park-roads to the extent of 
75 m. ; and then I took train for Cincinnati, in company with the club-men of 
that city returning from the parade, in which their new uniforms of green vel- 
veteen had played so picturesque a part. None of the numerous bicyclers 
from various localities whom I talked with in Chicago had planned to prolong 

•From The Wheelman, October, 1883, pp. 30-37 ("The Hills of Kentucky "). 



IN THE DOWN-EAST FOGS. 



27s 



offered the inducement of half-rates, if we would stop over for a day or two 
and help " open the season " of his as yet unpeopled establishment ; and it 
may be added that several of the lesser hotels previously patronized had im- 
mortalized our visit by opening new registry books, emblazoned as to the 
title-page with " Tour of the Portland Bicycle Club," beneath which legend 
we placed our precious signatures. 

I had hardly believed that the fascination of " riding in a regular body 
together " would retain its hold on the tourists in such a place as Mount 
Desert, where the plan of jogging about in twos or threes or solitarily, accord- 
ing to individual whim, seemed so much more in keeping with the character 
and spirit of the place ; but the captain was inexorably bent on taking a regu- 
lar ride ; and not a man could I find to join me in rebellion against him. His 
decision was, after a brief inspection of the map, that we must attempt what 
is known as " the 22-m. drive "; and though it might perhaps be fairly assumed, 
on general principles, that the roads of an island distinctively famous for its 
rocks and crags could not be safely accepted as favorable for bicycling, ex- 
cept on better evidence than the beliefs and guesses of a lounger in a " sum- 
mer-resort hotel," — the rest of the party acquiesced in the decision as un- 
questioningly as if it had related to an afternoon's spin along a familiarly- 
known raacadamized track, like the one overlooking the Hudson from New 
York to Tarrytown. So, at a quarter before 2 o'clock, the devoted ten 
wheeled out from the seclusion of the Grand Central Hotel, and started south- 
ward, with gay and hopeful hearts, — the carriage of the artist bringing up the 
rear. Six hours and ten minutes later, the specified circuit of 22 m. was com- 
pleted. The appointed task of getting the bicycles " around the drive " had 
been accomplished ; not one of the pleasurers had shirked a single rod of it ; 
and though most of them were badly bruised, all were at least sufficiently 
alive to be conscious of unbroken bones. Yet these men were the elite of the 
thirty-five, so far as touring was concerned, for a similar number of equally 
good riders could not have been selected from the remaining twenty-five, nor 
a similar number of better riders from among ten times as many average bi- 
cyclers. Not one of them was weak or inexperienced or ill-mounted on the 
wheel ; and not one of them failed to get tremendously tired before half the 
distance was gone over. It was by all odds the most memorable trip of the 
•entire tour. Its hardships and exasperations made it in many respects unique, 
for probably no similar set of tourists ever suffered so much in so short a 
time, as a suitable reward for their foolishness. A graphic picture of the 
character of the roads, and of the afternoon's sport, may be vividly presented 
to the minds of all bicyclers by the simple record : " Six bent handle-bars, 
out of a possible ten 1 " 

The road, though rough and hilly, was fairly ridable at the start, for, 
when a stop was made for water, at the end of i h., 4 m. had been covered, 
and one intermediate rest had been indulged in. The pace seemed to me 
much too fast for comfort, however, and I gradually dropped to the rear, — 



STRAIGHT A IVA V FOR FORTY DA YS. 305 

The white flannel of my riding-shirt, which the rain had been moistening 
for hours, was not to be dried even by the white heat of this thousand-mile 
triumph ; but the glow of this was certainly great enough to make the next 
hour's riding very vivid in my memory. I wheeled through no less than 5 m. 
of mud in that interval, though the rawhide bearings on the axle had now 
grown so soft as to make it revolve with great difficulty; and then I tramped 
through the darkness (7 m. in 2 h.) to the end at Port Jervis, — encountering 
at first continuous shallow puddles upon a smooth surface which would have 
been ridable by daylight, and afterwards stretches of soft and sticky mud. 
The picture presented at the closing in of night, — just before I dismounted, 
and resolved that I would take no more risks in reaching my base-of-supplies, 
however tiresome foot-progress thither might prove, — impressed itself more 
lastingly upon my mind than any other of the many curious and attractive 
scenes encountered on the forty days' journey. It was at a canal-lock in a 
sharp bend of the mountains, wliere a water-fall rushed and gurgled, and a 
bridge afforded a mimic stage upon which the snail-paced mules seemed to 
be posing themselves in a sort of ghostly fashion, as their great shapes 
loomed up with vague outlines against a background of mist. The yellow 
lights of the lower boats glimmered fitfully down the canal, and the red and 
green lanterns of the Erie cars and switches flashed a fierce response from 
the opposite shore, as the trains thundered around the bend. The gathering 
gloom and darkness seemed almost palpably to increase with every turn 
of the wheel, as it slipped silently along through the mud, carrying me nearer 
to this strange scene ; and the shadowy summits guarding the river's defile 
could be imagined as coming nearer together, as if bent on the grim joke 
of closing the gap against me. Somehow, the situation suggested the Vir- 
gilian lines with which the shipwrecked ^neas so nobly voiced his gratitude 
to the tender-hearted Dido. Somehow, those lines brought up the memory 
of my magnanimous bull-dog, and made me wish that dear old friend were 
alive again, in order that I might tell him how great an inspiration the 
thought of his indomitable perseverance had been to me, in marking the thou- 
sand-mile trail. Somehow, I felt called upon, in the white heat of my triumph, 
— as I proudly pushed my spattered bicycle down the muddy path of glory 
which seemingly led but to a misty grave, — to do homage to his blessed 
ghost. And so, at the top of my voice, I shouted to the tops of the mountains : 

" In freta dutn fiuvii current, dum moniihis umbrce 
Lustrabimt convexa, polus dum sidera pascet, 
Semper Itonos, nomenque ticum, laudesque manebunt, 
QucB tne cumgue vacant term." 

Only one fall was experienced by me in the entire 618 m. between Syra- 
cuse and Staunton, and that happened just before noon of the final day, 
when I was within less than 30 m. of the finish. In grinding against a rut, 
the front wheel was somehow pulled out from under me towards the r., while 
I sat down heavily towards the 1., exactly as in a case of slipping on the ice. 
20 



XXX. 



LONG-DISTANCE ROUTES AND RIDERS. 

Confirmation has already been given — in the shape of foot-notes to 
my touring reports, showing the swifter average advance made by other 
riders on the same routes — of the fact insisted upon in the Preface, that such 
reports instructively exhibit what anybody of ordinary physique can easily do 
I have said that this book would seem much less likely to gain acceptance, as 
a valuable contribution to human knowledge, if it recorded the exploits of an 
athletic or exceptionally strong and vigorous traveler, rather than the common- 
place experiences of a man-of-no-account, who regulates the speed and the dis- 
tance of his riding by the simple rule of getting the most possible pleasure 
from it. As cumulative evidence in the same line of argument, I offer the 
present chapter to prove that my capacity to take pleasure thus, in laying 
down a long bicycle-trail, is by no means exceptional. There are plenty of 
other men who enjoy this particular form of " conquering the earth " just as 
heartily as I do ; and several of them have indulged in such amusement much 
more extensively than myself. Those whose stories I here group together are 
fairly representative cases ; and though the first one is likely to forever stand 
unique in history, the number of less-notable long-distance tourists will surely 
increase with each advancing year. Some parts of my introduction to Chap- 
ter XXXI. might serve also as a suitable preface to the reports now given. 

Thomas Stevens (b. Dec. 24, 1854) rightly holds the place of honor on this record. He has 
already made a straightaway bicycle trail of 8000 m., — an incomparably longer and more difficult 
one than any previously in existence, — and he will extend it during 1S86, until it completely en- 
circles the globe, unless he gets killed on the way. Leaving the Pacific ocean at San Francisco, 
April 22, 1SS4, he pushed the bicycle 3700 m. before reaching the Atlantic at Boston, August 4 ; 
and resuming his trail, on the other side, at Liverpool, May 2, 1SS5, he extended it 4300 m. to 
Teheran, the capital of Persia, September 30, where he halted again for the winter, to prepare 
himself for the third and most desperate stage of his dangerous round-the-world adventure. A 
native of Great Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England, he emigrated to America at the age of 
18, and went immediately to join a brother who had settled w. of the Mississippi. From that 
time (1871) he never recrossed the river until the bicycle brought him to it, 13 years later. Much 
of this period was given to farming and ranching in Missouri and Wyoming (his parents still 
carry on a farm near Kansas City) ; but for two years he was employed in the rolling mills of 
the Union Pacific r. r., at Laramie City, and he also engaged somewhat in out-door " railroad- 
ing," kept a small store for a while, and turned his hand to a variety of things such as offer a 
livelihood to an enterprising emigrant in a new country. Having a desire to vary this sort of life 
by " seeing more of the world," the notion occurred to him that the saddle of a bic\'cle might be 
made to offer a practicable outlook. Hence his decision to attempt the ride from ocean to 
ocean, in the belief that the incidents of so novel a journey might be formulated into an attract- 
ive book, whose publisher would supply funds for continuing the trail across Europe to Con- 



XXXI. 

STATISTICS FROM THE VETERANS. 

Bashfulness has been defined as " vanity turned wrong-side-out," or a 
sort of mental awkwardness resulting from the belief that one's little errors 
and defects of behavior are closely observed by others. In fact, however, 
not much philosophy is needed to convince a man that the self-absorption of 
those others prevents them from noticing his faults, just as inevitably as it pre- 
vents them from recognizing his merits. They have no energy to waste in 
keeping a careful watch upon any one who is not of extraordinary consequence. 
To assume their disapproval, therefore, is hardly more modest than to as- 
sume their approval ; for the basis of each assumption must needs be the 
notion that one's presence is of that exceptional importance which has 
power to stir them from their usual unobservant attitude of profound indif- 
ference. My object in mentioning these things is to make clear what I mean 
by the theory that the admitted difficulty of procuring personal statistics is 
probably due to the fact that most men are either boastful or bashful. The 
former hate to lay aside the long-bow for the pen, and to reduce their glitter- 
ing generalities to e.xact statements, with dates and details, which may be in- 
vestigated. The bashful men, on the other hand, hate to publish the simplest 
facts about themselves, out of dread lest the act be taken for boastfulness. 
They are afraid that the whole world will halt from its customary business, 
in order to point the finger of scorn at them for presuming to put on record 
such personal details as might, in the case of a very famous man, attract the 
whole world's interest. It is hard to disabuse them of this silly notion, and 
to make them realize that the interest of statistics is a purely scientific and 
impersonal one. It is because they are of no possible account, as individual 
atoms, to the world at large, that their stories, when grouped together, make 
an interesting aggregate which is of value to the world. However little we 
may care for the doings of " an average man," as such, " the average man " 
is a personage who claims some share of the sympathy of all of us ; and it is 
the function of personal statistics to help define and materialize him. When 
I ask John Smith, and Tom Brown, and all the rest, to let me print their 
birthdays alongside their wheeling records, it is not from a belief that these 
dates have any personal interest outside the small circle of each man's ac- 
quaintance ; but because of their statistical value, when aggregated, in help- 
ing determine the average age at which a man is most active on the wheel. 

It would not be strictly true for me to say that I have spent more time 
and energy in persuading thirty cyclers to prepare for this book brief and un- 



XXXII. 

BRITISH AND COLONIAL RECORDS. 

Great Britain possesses at least a quarter-of-a-million wheelmen. In- 
deed, some guessers insist that the real number is twice as large, though I am 
not aware that any attempt has been made at a careful estimate. Yet only two 
dozen of this vast multitude have consented to answer my call for personal 
statistics. Hence, while some of these seem very remarkable, I do not pre- 
tend to assume that a still more extraordinary lot might not be collected in 
that country, — if the collector were powerful enough to get hold of every 
privately-kept wheeling record which is now hidden there. I simply assert 
that I got hold of all I could, and that I print all I got hold of. I offer these 
figures for just what they are worth in each individual case, and I hope no 
writer in the English press will be so unfair as to make sneering or censorious 
remarks against any of my contributors. Those whose records are small are 
by no means trying to pose before the American public as distinguished long- 
distance riders. My invitation was to all foreign wheelmen of a statistical turn 
of mind, that they favor me with a summary of their personal memoranda. 
"The average man" is just as heartily welcome to a place in this chapter as 
the exceptional man. I am grateful to all who have consented to stand here, 
but the degree of my gratitude to each is measured by the amount of trouble 
which he may have expended in supplying me with his personal story, and not 
by the amount of miles included in it, nor by the amount of interest it may 
presumably have to readers in England. My introduction to the previous 
chapter applies in good part to the present also, and should be carefully con- 
sidered by whomsoever the impulse seizes to say something satirical about 
any of the men mentioned here. 

ThS first place in this group seems properly to belong to the only man I ever heard of as 
having an authentic year's record of 10,000 m. on a bicycle. This is E. Tegetmeier, a member 
of the Belsize B. C. and a resident of the Finchley suburb of London, whose report to me (May 
3, '84) is dated at the office of the Field, 346 Strand. I infer that he is a regular viriter for that 
paper, and assume that he is about 30 years old ; and I have somewhere seen the printed state- 
ment that his father is also an enthusiastic cycler ; " From a wheelman's point of view, En- 
gland may be regarded as possessing unequaled facilities for locomotion. Scarcely a mile of 
country but is intersected by a road of some kind, and although many are what we here call 
bad, few in their normal condition are unridable. With these advantages, English riders are 
not only able to show better results, as far as distances go, than those less favorably situated, 
but they derive a degree of pleasure from the pursuit commensurate with the smoothness of the 
roads they travel upon. During '83, I was enabled to devote considerable time to bicycling, and 
this may account for my riding a distance about three times greater than my previous yearly 
average. Living near London, — about 7 m. due n. of Charing Cross, — I am fairly well situated 
for riding. In going out for a day's run, I generally take a northerly course, as by that means 



INDEX OF PERSONS. 



Ixxi 



627. Wilson, 100, 3S2, 525, 534, 558, 690, 693 
(294). Winchell, 114- Winthrop, 429, 431, 
439,443,610. Wistar, 627(354). Witty, 400. 
Wood, 158, 172, 17s, 177, 317. 377-S, 383. 
*388-9, 400, 498, 562. 584, 593, 625, *627, 675-7 
(644). Woodburn, 658. Woodman, 530. Wood- 
roofe, 635. Woodruff, 334. Woods, 646. 
Woodside, 499, 675. Woodward, 198. Wool- 
worth, 148. Wormley, 241. Worth, 390, 
609. Wragge, 560. Wright, 18, 22, 93, *628, 
643, 646, 660, 665, 674, 677. 

Xenophon vlii. 

Yapplewell, 538. Yates, *5 19-20 (2S6). 
Yopp, 62S. " Yorick," 402. Yorke, 687. 
Young, 105, *52S, *556, 575, 646, 655, 679, 686. 
Youngman (3S7). 

Zacharias, 712 (170-1, 174, 192-3). Zeh, 
323. Zimmerman, 628. Zmertych, 551. Zu- 
bowitz, 558. 

Contributors' Records. 

(Mrs.) J. H. Allen, 354. E. Ash, 564. B. 
B. Ayers, *5i8. G. W. Baker, *487. A. 

B. Barkman, *530. E. G. Barnett, 245. H. 
Barthol, 551-2. J. M. Barton, 201. A. 
Bassett, *525. C. D. Batchelder, 575-6. L. 
J. Bates, 505-6. J. W. Bell, *529. P. L. 
Bernhard, 154. W. Binns, *543. R. O. 
Bishop, 563. H. Blackwell, 554. J. L. 
Bley, *493. A. M. Bolton, 549, 683. W. 
Bowles, *S46. W. J. Bowman, 492. G. L. 
Bridgman, *55o. C. P. Brigham, 377. G. 
R. Broadbent, 562. F. W. Brock, 545. J. 
W. M. Brown, *537. G. L. Eudds, 565. H. 
Callan, *545. W. W. Canfield, 215. W. 
Collins, *i2S, 138. J. K. and T. B. Con- 
way, 553, 557. F. R. Cook, *493. J. Cop- 
land, *564-5. E. H. Corson, 525, 577. H. 

C. Courtney, 544. M. W. Couser, *I97. W. 
F. Grossman, 376. R. C. Cox, 560-1. J. G. 
Dalton, *5o4. W. W.' Darnell, *244. P. C. 
Darrow, xcviii. S. H. Day, *si2. J. S. 
Dean, 526. P. E. Doolittle, *3i9. B. W. 
Doughty, 154. J. D. Dowling, *52i. S. B. 
Downey, 3S9. F. E. Drullard, 574. H. E. 
Ducker, *524. A. Edwards, 565. F. A. El- 
dred, *377. H. Etherington, *546-S. W. 
P. Evans, 378. I. K. Falconer, 555. W. 
Farrington, 517. H. C. Finkler, 489-92. G. 
F. Fiske, 113, 142, *522. J. Fitton, 567-8. 
W. T. Fleming, 245, 500. L. Fletcher, 554, 
557. C. E. Gates, 587. A. Gault, 560-1. 
W. V. Gilman, »507. S. Colder, 551. C. 



M. Goodnow, 527. H. R. Goodwin, *336-7, 
554. C. H. R. Gossett, 554. L. B. Graves, 
114. T. F. Hallam, 563. H. B. Hart, 526. 
A. Hayes, *54o-i. F. D. Helmer, 216. E. 

A. Hemenway, *5i7. C. H. Hepinstall, 314. 
W. E. Hicks, 528. H. J. High, *485. C. 
Howard, *55o. W. Hume, 561. H. Jarvis, 
*486. F. Jenkins, *i87. F. M. S. Jenkins, 
*327, 330. H. J. Jenkins, 568. H. J. Jones, 
*53S-4o. J. T. Joslin, *i97. C. D. Ker- 
shaw, 526. R. Ketcham, *i97. A. J. Kolp, 
*34o. I. J. Kusel, *524. W. H. Langdown, 
569-70. C. Langley, *53o. J. Lennox, 554-5. 

B. Lewis, *524. C. H. Lyne, 565-6, 696. J. 
D. Macaulay, *527. R. H. McBride, 319. 
G. P. MacGowan, 197. T. R. Marriott, 
554-5, 557- E. INLison, *523. R. D. Mead, 
*509. G. B. Mercer, 553, 557. F. T. Merrill, 
492. T. Midgely, *5 13-15. A. E. Miller, 
244. G. P. Mills, *555-S. A. Nixon, 554-5. 
J. F. Norris, 567. H. C. Ogden, 19S. A. 
H. Padman, 560-1. W. B. Page, *494-9, 
573-8. R. W. Parraenter, 488. G. L. Par- 
meley, 579. A. S. Parsons, *5i6. E. F. 
Peavey, 576. J. and E. R. Pennell, 530. 
W. L. Perham, *5i5. R. E. Phillips, *55o. 

C. E. Pratt, *503. H. R. Reynolds, jr., 
*533-4. A. C. Rich, 193. E. and W. Rideout, 
*49i. A. E. Roberts, 563. R. P. H. Rob- 
erts, 541. S. Roether, 315. A. S. Roorbach, 
164. W. Rose, 489. T. Rothe, *5i5. P. 
Rousset, *552. J. F. Rugg, 565. G. H. 
Rush worth, *545. T. S. Rust, 138. F. Sals- 
bury, 544. E. E. Sawtell, *377. L. W. 
Seely, 34S-9. M. T. Shafer, 216. F. W. 
Sherburne, 578. H. P. and G. H. Shimmin, 

561. E. R. Shipton, 691. T. B. Somers, 
*52o. S. G. Speir, xcvii. C. Spencer, 554. 
J. W. Stephenson, *529. G. T. Stevens, 551. 
T. Stevens, *473-84, 570-2. H. Sturmey, 
548-9. F. O. Swallow, 128. F. P. Sy- 
monds, 529. J. E. R. Tagart, 553. G. J. 
Taylor, *52o. E. Tegetmeier, 531-3. G. B. 
Thayer, 576. R. Thompson, 216. R. A. 
and T. H. Thompson, 561. M. Thornfeldt, 

562, 565-6, 696. C. E. Tichener, 21S. N. 
P. Tyler, 128, 13S-9, *i49, *5io. N. H. Van 
Sicklen, 519. J. M. Verhoeff, *235-7. J. S. 
Whatton, *544. H. T. Wharlow, *543. J. 
H. Whiting, 138. F. E. Van Meerbeke, 
xcvii. H. & W. J. Williams, 316. H. W. 
Williams, *sii-i2. W. W. Williams, 558. 
A. J. Wilson, *534-5. H. S. Wood, *388. 



XXXIX. 



THE THREE THOUSAND SUBSCRIBERS. 



The following persons have each subscribed $i to ensure the publication of this book, 
and they are authorized to persuade as many other persons as possible to buy copies of it at 
$2.00. each. Numerals signify the order of enrollment upon the subscription-list, and town- 
names show where other details may be found by consulting the alphabetized lists of the 
Geographical Directory (XL.), in which the States stand as follows : Me., N. H., Vt., Mass., 
R. I., Ct., N. Y., N. J., Pa., Del., Md., Dist. of Col., W. Va.,Va., N. C, S. C, Ga., Fla., Ala., 
Miss., La., Tex., Ark., Tenn., Ky., O., Mich., Ind., 111., Mc, la.. Wis., Minn., Dak., Neb., 
Kan., Ind. Ter., N. Mex., Col., Wy., Mon., Id., Wash., Or., Utah, Nev., Ariz., Cal. After 
these may be found Canada, England, the various countries of Europe and Asia, and the 
colonies of Australia. Italics are used in referring to all these regions outside the U. S. For- 
eigners are reminded that Baltimore is in Md., Boston in Mass., Brooklyn in N. Y., Chicago in 
111., Cincinnati in O., Philadelphia (shortened to " Phila.") in Pa., San Francisco in Cal., 
St. Louis in Mo., Washington in D. C, and that the name of the State must always be added 
to any address in the U. S. The only exception to this is the chief city of all, because (as it has 
the same name with the chief State of all, and lies within its borders) a duplication of " New 
York " is not necessary. 



Aaron, Eugene M., Philadelphia 108, 2216-29 

Abadie, E. R., New Almaden, Cal. 2012 

Abbott, Edward G., Diss, Eng. 2939 

Abel, P. L., Riverside, Cal. 2065 

Aborn, Geo. P., Wakefield, Mass. 1848 

Abrams, Edwin H., Croton Falls, N. Y. 3271 

Acker, W. Wallace, Norristown, Pa. 2551 

Adams, C. Franklin, Bordentown, N. J. 2274 

Adams, C. M., Mansfield, Pa. 1782 

Adams, D. C, Plainfield, N. J. 1338 

Adams, D. C, Randolph, N. Y. 86 

Adams, E. C. , Battle Creek, Mich. 2863 

Adams, Edwin W. , New York 75 

Adams, F. , Newark, N. J. 2486 

Adams, Frank M., Rockville, Ct. 333 

Adams, Horace A., Willimantic, Ct. 756 

Adams, J. Fred, Haverhill, Mass. 245 

Adams, J. Howe, Philadelphia, Pa. 573 

Adams, J. H., Yarmouth ville, Me. 2646 

Adams, L., Eastbourne, Eng. 25S4 

Adams, R. G., Henderson, Ky. 2324 

Adams, Walter H., Worcester, Mass. 3158 

Adams, W. E., Melbourne, Vict. 1710 

Adams, William, Brooklyn, N. Y. 1671 

Adcock, A., Hobart, Tas. 3214 

A delphi Library, Easthampton, Mass. 3201 

Adriance, J. R., Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 490 



Aekison, J. D., Oakland, Cal. 3238 

Affleck, Robert, Gateshead, Eng. 27S4 

Aiken, W. H., College Hill, O. 1933 

Albee, E. D., Wakefield, Mass. 102 

Albright, H. S., Orwigsburg, Pa. 3362 
Aldrich, James, Spencer, Mass. 3152, 3153 

Alexander, A., Liverpool, Eng. 2904 

Allen, Add S., Summit Point, W. Va. 1437 

Allen, jr., Chas. W., Cincinnati, O. 1305 

Allen, F. H., Brattleboro, Vt. 1565 

Allen, N. G., Athens, N. Y. 29 

Allerton, jr., O. H., Pittsburg, Pa. 2958 

Alley, Chas. K., New York 16S3 

Allison, Geo. F., Oswego, N. Y. 89 

Allison, J. G., (Galveston, Tex.) 31S 

Allison, Robt., Greenock, Scot. 3079 

Aim, H. A., Minneapolis, Minn. 2S11 

Alter, C. H., Homestead, Pa. 21 15 

Alvord, C. E., Detroit, Mich. 665 

Alvord, Jas. Leslie, Philadelphia, Pa. 1369 

American Hotel, Allentown, Pa. 1265 

A merican House, Calais, Me. 2090 

American House, Indiana, Pa. 1899 

Ames, E. H., Titusville, Pa. 1302 
Ames, F. V., S. Abington Station, Mass. 1289 

Amis House, Pine Bluff, Ark. 2725 

Amory, R. G., New York 1388 



' DIRECTORY OF WHEELMEN. 

The names of the 3000 subscribers, which have just been exhibited alphabetically, are here 
repeated geographically. They are grouped under residence-towns, which are alphabetized by 
States ; and the order of these, from Maine to California, is given at the head of the previous 
chapter. Libraries, hotels and clubs are italicized, and are named in advance of private sub- 
scribers. The double asterisk (**) denotes insertion in " Trade List of Agencies where this 
book may be bought or consulted " ; which list forms the conclusion of the present chapter, 
and which agencies belong for the most part to dealers in bicycles, who are otherwise designated 
by the single asterisk (*). Clergymen are marked by t, lawyers by t, physicians by II, dentists by 
and druggists by §; while small-capitals are used as follows : LC, League consul ; Lcc, League 
chief consul (the president of a State Division) ; lr. League representative ; LS, League secretary- 
treasurer (of a State Division) ; l applied to a club means that all its members belong to the 
League ; l applied to a hotel means that the League recommends it ; TC and TCC mean consul 
and State consul, respectively, of the English " C. T. C." ; wc, wcc and wr mean consul, chief 
consul and representative, respectively, in the Canadian Wheelmen's Association ; o means a 
non-rider and N a non-member of club. Capital letters designate club officers thus : B, bugler ; 
C, captain; F, fiagman (color-bearer) ; L, lieutenant; P, president ; S, secretary; T, treasurer; 
and they are used as follows in the title-lines (the town's name being understood when no other 
is given) : B. C, bicycle club; C. C, cycle club; T. C, tricycle club; W. C, wheel club; 
W'l'n, wheelmen. The parenthesis, when around a club's name, means that those grouped be- 
low are presumed to be members ; when around a man's name, it means that he has left the 
town or club ; when around the official letters, it means that he has left the office. As official 
terms are all the while ending, by resignation or limitation, the parenthesis should doubtless be 
used in many cases where the " ex " has not been called to my notice ; while, on the other 
hand, many active officers are left unmarked because of my ignorance as to their election or 
appointment. Likewise in regard to club-membership, the mistakes must be numerous, as so 
large a proportion of my subscribers have neglected to inform me of their status. In the short 
lists, where a single club is supposed to have a claim on all names not excepted by " n " or 
" o " or the parenthesis, I probably have failed to make exceptions enough ; while, in the large 
towns, where the club-members and unattached are grouped in separate alphabets, it is almost 
certain that several of the former should be wrongly classed among the latter. In fine, I do not 
ask any one to accept this Directory as a piece of perfection. I the rather warn all concerned 
to be reconciled in advance to its inevitable shortcomings and errors. Yet, with all its faults, it 
represents an enormous amount of painstaking ; and I therefore trust it may be admired by 
some, in the same spirit which ensured praise to the performing dogs of Dr. Johnson's time — 
" not that they danced well ; the wonder was they danced at all." 



MAINE. 

Augusta : {Ketmebec County IV'Pft), 
Aitg-iista House, C. S. Hichborn. 

Bangor : (Pine Tree W. C, Oct. 22, '83), 
James Crosby, W. R. Roberts, VP, 

Geo. O. Hall, C. J. H. Ropes, tN, 

O. B. Humphrey,iL, W. F. Stone, 
Charles A. Lyon,* F. C. Weston. 

Belfast : J. Louis Pendleton, 

Geo. T. Read,* Fred J. Stephenson. 



Brunswick : Bowdoin College Liirary. 
Calais : [Calais B. C, 1885), 

American Honse, by D. M. Gardner, 

Frank H. Moore, S. 
Dexter : W. A. Small. 
Fairfield : James O. Wkittemore. 
Lewiston : 

A. F. Nutting, Elmer I. Thomas. 

Lubec : Cobscook Hotel, by T. J. Lincoln. 
Paris : Will. L. Perham. 



INDEX OF PLACES. 



XXXV 



In the following list of towns named in this book, those which the " U. S. Official Postal 
Guide " designates as money-order offices are put in full-faced type ; and the star (*) marks such 
as are county-seats. Towns outside the United States have their countries given in italics. 
A numeral higher than 764, shows that one or more subscribers to the book are catalogued on the 
specified page ; and the numbers 609, 610 refer always to the names of subscribing hotels. 



Abbotsboro, Pa., 388. Abbottstown, Pa., 
386. Aberdeen, Md., 497. Aberdeen, 5"c<?;'., 
555. 599. 645. 792- Abington, Eng., 536. 
Abington, Md., 497. Abington, Ms., 766. 
Academy, Pa., 609, 778. Adams, Ms., 193, 
700. Adams Center, N. Y., 344-5. Ad- 
amstown, Pa., 3S7. Addison, N. Y., 218. 
*Adel, la., 787. Adelaide, Ont., 332. Ad- 
elaide, .S". Aus., 560-5. Adelong Crossing, 
N. S. W., 565. *Adrian, Mich., 785. Ad- 
rianople, Tur., 482. Agawam, Ms., 122, 
128, 146, 179, 180-1, 251, 580. Agra, Ind., 
572. Ailsa Craig, Ont., 332. Airolo, It., 
552. *Akron, O., 501, 595, 609, 784. Ak- 
ron, Pa., 387. Alabama, N. Y., 222; Al- 
amoochy, N. J., 163. *Albany, N. Y., n, 
29, 32, 51, 75, 76, 85, 154, 187, 190-2, 197-8, 
209, 221, 378, 471. 479. 487-8, 501, 507, 523, 
583-4,593-4. 597,604, 656,770. *Albia, la., 
501, 787. *Albion, 111., 485. *Albion, Ind., 
785. *Albion, N. Y., 217, 222, 488. Al- 
bury, N. S. IV., 564-5. Alconbury, Eng., 
540-1, 553. Alden, N. Y., 208, 215, 222. Al- 
denville, Pa., 339. Aldie, Va., 348. Alexan- 
der, N.Y., 222. Alexandria, Ky., 590. ♦Al- 
exandria, Va., 373, 376, 465. Alexandria 
Bay, N. Y., 333-4. Alfred, Ont., 328. Ali- 
abad, Per., 571. Allahabad, Ind., 572. Al- 
legany, N. Y., 223. Allegheny City, Pa., 
778. Allendale, N. J., 169. AUenford, C>«/., 
316. Allentown, N. Y., 220. *Allentown, 
Pa., 339, 3S7, 778. Alliance, O., 594. Al- 
liston, Out., 316. Allowaystovvn, N. J., 521. 
AUston, Ms., 766. Almond, N. Y., 217, 
218, 223. Alpine, N. J., 81, 586. Alten- 
burg, Ausi., 481. Altnamain, Eng., 536. 
Alt OeUing, Ger., 481. Alton, 111., 501, 594. 
Alton Bay, N. H., 577. AltOOna, la., 479. 
Altoona, Pa., 496, 530, 609, 778. Alvarado, 
Cal., 493. Alvinston, C«j!., 332. Amenia, 
N.Y., 143, 146-7, 188. Amesbury, Ms., 102, 
766. Amherst, Ms., 113, 114, 120, 142, 186, 
523, 579, 766. Amherst, JV. S., 2S9, 790. 
Amity, Or., 788. Amityville (L. 1.), N. Y., 
150-4, 584. Amosville, Pa., 379. Am- 
sterdam, Hoi., 545. Amsterdam, N. Y., 



197, 200, 208, 216. Ampthill, Eng., 553 
Ancaster, Ont., 314. Ancona, It., 552. An 
dover, Ms., n2, 20S, 223, 579, 766. *An- 
gelica, N. Y., 217. Angola, N. Y., 479 
Angora, Tur., 481-2, 792. Anita Springs 
Ky., 236. Annapolis, IV. S., 282, 284-5, 609 
790. *Ann Arbor, Mich., 501, 595, 609 
628, 785. Annisquam, Ms., 512. Ann , 
ville, Pa., 343. Ansonia, Ct., 139, 140, 142 
769. Antietam, Md., 352, 384. Antigonish 
IV. S., 289, 790. Antwerp, Bel, 532, 545 
599. Antwerp, N. Y., 334. Apalachin 
N. Y., 218. Appleton City, Mo., 787 
*Apporaattox, Va., 346. Ararat, Vict., 560. 
2, 566, 696. Arcadia, Mo., 528. Areola, N 
J., 165-6, 169. Ardmore, Pa., 389, 609, 778 
Argyle, IV. S., 293. *Argyle, N. Y., 193 
Arkona, Ont., 332. Arkport, N. Y., 222 
Arkwright, Ont., 316. Arluigton, Minn. 

787. Arlon, Bel., 545. Armada, Mich. 
785. Arnheim, £el., 545. Arnprior, (?«/., 327 
Arran, Ont., 315. Arthur, Ont., 316. Arva 
Ont., 312. *Asheville, N. C, 500. Ash 
ford, Eng., 790. Ashford, N. Y., 75, 79, 80 
Ashland, Ky., 590, 783. Ashland, Ms. 
III. Ashland, N. H., 577. * Ashland, O. 
784. Ashland, Pa., 778. , Ashland, Va. 
351. Ashmore, 111., 489, 786. Ashtabula, 
O., 12, 28, 31, 50, 205, 479, 487, 4SS, 594 
Ashton, R. I., 109. Ashton, Md., 373, 376 
497. Ashton-under-Tyne, Eng., 645. Ash 
uelot, N. H., 579. Ashville, N. Y., 587 
Asterabad, Ems., 571. Astoria (L. I.), N 
Y., 28, 32, 97, 98, 153, 584. *Astoria, Or. 

788. *Atchison, Kan., 594. Athol, Ms. 
4S8, 579. Athole, Scot., 556. Athens 
N. Y., 770. Atherton, Onf., 332. Atkin- 
son, 111., 479. *Atlanta, Ga., 352, 594, 597 
Attica, N. Y., 216, 222. *Auburn, Cal. 
476. * Auburn, Ind., 785. *AuburnN.Y. 
201, 208, 212, 770. Auckland, ^V. Z., 566 
567, 568, 794. Augsburg, Ger., 481. Au 
gusta, Ky., 590, 609, 783. *Augusta, Me. 
573, 574, 597, 609, 765. Auma, Ger., 552 
•Austin, Tex., 783. Aurora, 111., 609, 786 
Aurora, N. Y., 215. Aurora, Ont., 316, 



INDEX OF PERSONS. 



Ixv 



The following list is designed to give the family name of every person mentioned in this 
book, and also of many who are alluded to without being named. References to such allusions 
are enclosed in parenthesis. Quotation-marks cover pseudonyms and names of fictitious per- 
sons. The star (*) points to birthdays. The list contains 1476 names and 3126 references. 



Aaron, 177-8! 619-21, 624, 627, Ixxxiv. (604, 
707, 764). Abbott, 556, 595. Abercronibie, 
185. Ackerman, 404. Adam, 444, 56S, 645, 
684, 720. Adams, 100, 113, 149, 177, 217, 
243. 331. 53S, 553-4, 557-S, 6S7. "Adoles- 
cens," 500. "jEneas," 305. "Agouistes," 
690. Ahern, 592. Albert-Edward, 469-71. 
Albone, 557-8. Albutt, 645. Aldrich, 431. 
Alexander, 331. "Algernon," 641. Allan, 
592. Allen, 154, 186, 339, 34S, 554, 674, 6S8. 
Alley, 627, 657. Aim, *628. "Amaryllis," 
442. Ames, 124. Amherst, 127, 185. Amis, 
610. Ammen, 352. "Ananias," 349, 495. 
Anderson (232). Anderton, 537. Andre, 76, 
80, 169. Andrews, 645. App, 500. Apple- 
ton, 65, 81, 87,96, 100, 155, 198, 431, 434, 
611-12, 700. Appleyard, 4, 554, 557. Archi- 
bald, 470. Aristides, 718. Arming, 564. 
Armstrong, 466. Arnold, 15, 169, 309, 728. 
"'Arry," 641. Ash, 564. Ashby, 347, 348. 
Ashmead, 646. "Asmodeus," 14. Atkins, 
111,655,677. Atkinson, 645, 693. Atwater, 
628 (iSo, 423, 722-3). Aube, 458. Aurelius, 
466. Austin, *628. Auten,668. Auty, 644. 
Avery, 674. Ayers, *5i8-9, 591, 594, *627-8, 
675. 716 (703). 

"Baby," 553, 558. Bacon, 173. Bsedeker, 
293, 640. Bagg, 183, 201, 209-10, 610 (130-1, 
722-3). Bagot, 560, 696. Bailey, 493. Baird, 
560, 668 (620). Baker, *4S7. Baldwin, 3S4, 
578, 582, 609, 65S (395). Bale, 696. Ball, 
554. Ballantyne, 635. Bancroft (23, 406, 
726). Baney, 610. Bannard (2). Baquie, 
628. Bar, 609. " Bard," 506. Bardeen, 
(212). Bardwell, 610. Barkman, *53o, 5S4-5, 
597, 625, 655, 677. Barlow, 564. Barnard, 
631. Barnes, 323, 600, 635, *66S-9. Barnett, 
23s, 245, 6og. Barrett, 609. Barrick, 376. 
Barrow, 553, 689. Barthol, 551-2. Bartlett, 
♦386, 628. Barton, 201, 210-11. Bartram, 
562,645(369). Bashall, 645. " Basil," 215-16, 
(427-S). Basilone, 700. Bason, 562. Bassett, 
♦525, *627, 663-5, 675 (603, 629-30, 704, 711). 
Bastian, 500. Bates, 314, 319-20, *5o5, 610, 
621, 626, 629, 633, 657(311, 673). Batchelder, 
S75i *676-7. Baughman, 244. Baxter, 201, 
600, 657. Bayley, 628. Bayliss, 546. Beach, 



77, 1 88. Beal, *628. Beasley, 599. Beazley, 
553. Beck, 554. Beckers, 575. Beckwith, 
*627, 666-7, 675 (633)- Beddo, (232). Beebe, 
609. Beecher, 403. Beers, gg, 108, 126, 177, 
187, 466, 577, 701 (727, 733). Beekman, 585. 
l^egg, 635- l^e'l, *529. 553- Belcher, 658. 
Benassit, 698. Benjamin, 355, 4S3, 661. Ben- 
nett, 492, 561, 627. Benson, 530. Bentley, 
499 ('3 0- Benton, 510. Beruhard, 154. 
Berruyer, 698. Bettison, 530. " Bibliopil," 
699. Bidwell, 96, 586, 594, 627-8. Bien, 
174-5. Biederman, 661. Bigelow, 523, *657. 
Biglin (368-9). Bingham, 645, 651, 700. 
Binns, 482, *543. Bird, 293. Bishop, 431, 
559, 563-4, 652, 728. Bittenger, 643. Black, 
561. Blackball, 635. Blackham, 658. Black- 
well, 542, 554. Blacque, 83. Blaine (726). 
Blake, *628. Blanchard, 646. Blatchford, 
113. Bley, *493. BIyth, 65S. Blythe, 635. 
Bogardus, 4g3. Bolton, 54S, 6S3. Bonami, 
69S. " Bones," 431. Bonnell, 628. Booth, 
493, 632. Borrow, 446. Bosworth, 658. 
Bouchette, 331. Bouchier, 562. Bourdon, 
554. Bousted, 634. Bowen, 221-2, 563, 588, 
677. Bowles, 115, *546. Bowman, 158, 492. 
Braddock, 243. Bradford (463, 607). Brad- 
ley, 254, 579. Bradney, 645. Brady, 174. 
Bragg, 228. Brevoort, 611. Brewster, 370, 
Sg4, 627, 643, 657. Bridgman, *S5i. Brierley, 
330, 634-5, *669. Briggs, ijg, 559, 563. 
Brigham, 114. Bristed, *727. Bristol, 658. 
Broadbent, 562. Brock, 382, 545. Brockett, 
177. Brooke, 609, 645. Brooks, 679 (412). 
Bromley, 176. Brown, 141, 170, 177, 185, 
384, 471, *S37, 543, 553, 557, 600, 627, 6S0. 
" Brown," 92, 499, 502, 605, 718. Browning, 
655. Bruce, 470, *628. Brunelleschi, 429. 
Bryan, 700. Bryant, 216, 667, 700. Bryson, 
645. " Bucephale," 238, 242. Buchanan, 
686. Buckingham, 555 (363). Budds, 565. 
Buell, 228, 658 (121, 181, 191, 197). Bulk, 645. 
"Buff," 424. Bull, 221, 222, "402," 587, 
588, 594, 627, 677 (215, 217). BuUinger, 100. 
Bunce, 700. Banner (36, 44, 246, 727). Bur- 
bank, 16, III, 506, 673, 677. Burchard (460). 
Burgoyne, 127, 186. Burke, 727. Burn, 645, 
652, 665, 695. Burnett, 645. Burnham, 530, 



INDEX OF PERSONS. 



Ixxxiii 



Incidents and Accidents. 
Ankle sprained on the tow - path, 56, 
241. Bad boy at Port Chester, 54. Be- 
nighted in Virginia mud, 375. Boston 
ruffianism at lantern-parade, 371. Canal 
"coolers," 340. Clothes rent, 307. Col- 
lisions, 55, 733, 529. Crossing an engine- 
hose, 516. Descending the Blue Ridge in 
a thunder-storm, 3S0. Dog-bite at Yonkers, 
18. Dog carried on tricycle by Australian 
tourist, 565. Elbow-breaking of my ear- 
liest ride, 24, 62, 307. Englishmen's mis- 
haps, 539-40. Falls and breakage of bicy- 
cle, 37-40, 54, 306-7. Fleeing from the 
customs officers, 575. Ford-crossing in a 
farmer's cart, 37S, 3S3. Fording the rivers 
in New Zealand, 568. Forgetful inn-keeper, 
The, 3 18. Hard luck at Bagg's Hotel, 209. 
Headers of the Down-East party, 260, 276 ; 
of T. Stevens, 475, 478, 480. Horses, en- 
counters with, 57, 226, 321, 395-8. Immu- 
nity from accidents, 507, 511, 532, 537, 545, 
S47i 585. Insolence of hotel-clerk rebuked, 
338. Jumping on a nail, 306. Lantern 
parade interrupted, 371. Mules scared on 
the Erie tow-path, 9, 199, 208. Mules scare 
me on the D. & H. path, 44, 340. Nar- 
row escapes : from a drunken man's whip, 
at Springfield, 57 ; from runaway mules at 
Honesdale, 45 ; from a recklessly-driven 
horse at Somerville, 733 ; from sunstroke, 
on the " hottest day of eleven years," 54, 
153. Pilfering, 57. Pocket-book lost and 
restored, 150. Prospect Park fatality, 586. 
Racing for the homeward steamer, 362. 
Rattlesnake bite in Nebraska, 478. Road- 
race interrupted by frightened mare, 321. 
Stevens (T.) in Afghanistan, 571 ; at An- 
gora, 482 ; in a Persian snow-storm, 570; 
mobbed in China, 572. Talks with specta- 
tors of the Bull Run battles, 375. Upset 
by bad boy of Port Chester, 54. 

Women. 
Acquaintances alluded to, 136, 410, 
423, 424, 450, 452, 731. Adulation of 
the clergy, 727. Mrs. Allen's long tri- 
cycle ride, 554. "Amaryllis," 442. Ameri- 
can social types, 449. Australian tricycle 
tourists, 562. Mrs. President Bates, 505. 
Miss Brock's sketch of Weyer's cave, 382. 
Cary sisters, 731. " Cecil Dreeme," 438-9, 
441. Chance to learn tricycling at Orange, 



588. Characters in H. James's novel, 
" Washington Square," 432. Charmers of 
Calais, The, 266. Citizenessesof Machias, 
272. Concierge's wife, 458. Countess de 
Castiglione's vanity, 2S0. Mrs. J. C. R. 
Dorr's " Bermudian Days," 366-7. Miss 
Erskine's book on " Tricycling for ladies," 
684. Fifth Avenue residents, 453. Girl- 
graduates in Kentucky, 232. Hatred of 
each other, 721. Hotel life, 450. H. H.'s 
definition of triumph, 304. Inquisitiveness, 
302. "Isabel's" notions, 216, 447. Mrs. 
Kemble's opinion of theatrical life, 728. 
Mrs. M. J. Lamb's " Hist, of N. Y. City," 
433. Mrs. F. T. McCray's cycling novel, 
655, 67S' " M'd'Ue des Mollets," 429, 439. 
Maidens of college days, 136. Mammoth 
Cave, Suggested troubles at, 382. Mat- 
rons' conversation, 450. Mrs. C. B. Mar- 
tin's book of Mt. Desert, 281. Matrimo- 
nial allusions, 280, 410, 472, 731. Mem- 
bers of C. T. C, 638. Mistresses and 
wives, 442-4. Mileage records, 528, 530, 
S43. S54> 562. Newspaper gossip, 281. 
Novel of tricycling, 655, 675. Orange 
Wanderers, 530. Mrs. Pennell's tricycling 
tours, 530, 655, 687. Queen Victoria, 471. 
Mrs. Radcliffe's novels, 430. Rarity of 
"character," 426. Reproaches from, on 
tow-path and sidewalk, 9, 11. Rivalry, 721. 
" Rosalind," 439. Miss E. L. Smith's 
cycling novel, 655, 675. Miss Sylvester, 
" bicyclienne," 520. " Sweet Singer of 
Mich.," Quotation from the, 729. Timid- 
ity of, in horse-driving, 10, 313. Tricyclers, 
5'7> 519, 521, 523, 524, 528, 530, 534, 548, 
564. " Tricycling for Ladies," Miss Ers- 
kine's book on, 684. Tricycling tours, 
Mrs. Pennell's, 530, 655, 687. Servant- 
girls' dread of the U. B., 431, 440; modes 
of ruling their employers in England and 
America, 445, 449. " Skatorial queen," 
400. Universal rivals, 721. Velocipede 
racers in Paris, 403. " Viola," 439. " Vir- 
ginia," 442. Visitors to the University 
Building, 441-4, 470. Waiters in the Mo- 
hawk Valley, 13. " Wheels and Whims," 
655> 675. Miss Winthrop's book, 439. 
Wives of wheelmen, 505, 506, 508, 516, 517, 
519, 521, 523, 524, 528, 530, 548, 554. 
Writers quoted or alluded to, 2S1, 304, 
366-7, 3S2, 433, 530, 655, 67s, 684, 687, 728, 
729. 73I- 



TEN THOUSAND MILES 



ON A BICYCLE 



By KARL KRON 

Author of "Four Yeaks at Yale, by a Graduate op '69" 



Mailed by the I'l blisheu on i;eceii't ok mdnev-ordek kor Two Dollars 

PAYABLE AT STATION I). 



PUBLISHED BY KARL KRON 

THE UNIVERSITY BUILDING, WASHINGTON SQUARE 

NEW YORK 

1887 



xxu 



TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 



Goshen, 143. Great Bethel, 439. Green- 
wich, 139. Harper's Ferry, 241, 384. Jer- 
sey City, 16S. Lake George, 1S5-7. Leete's 
Island, 132. Lexington, 103, 3S6. Morris- 
town, 163. Newburg, 171. New York, 158. 
Perryville, 228. Saratoga, 1S6. Sharps- 
bnrg, 3S4. Sheffield, 147. South Moiuit- 
ain, 238. Springfield, 127. Staten Island, 
158. Tarrytovvn, 76. Ticonderoga, 1S6. 
West Springfield, 127. White Plains, 74. 
Winchester, 345, 3S3. Wyoming, 220. 
Yonkers, 7S. 

Bays and Gulfs, Index to, Ixi. 

Bed-bugs at the " danger-board hotels of the 
C. T. C," 639-41 ; at the Maryland canal 
house, 239 ; in Australia, 566. 

Bed-rooms, Sunlight, quiet, good air and bath- 
tubs wanted for, 602, 612, 614. 

Beginners, Books of advice for, 67S. 

Belgium : Q T. C. members, 656. Cycling 
Union, 651, 700. Free entry for cj'cles, 599. 
Journals, 699. Toms, 522, 546, 549. 

Belts, My dislike of, 18, 22. 

Bermuda, The Coral Reefs of, 353-70, 
xiv., 592, 790. 

Bicycles, Index to makes of, Ixxviii. 

Bicycling : as a bridge to social intercourse, 
5, 14, 729; as a chance for character-study, 
3, 5, 10, 20, 729; as a cure for malaria, 
292, 308; as an introduction-card, 14, 730; 
as a solace for the solitary, 14, 34, 255, 309, 
729 ; as a source of health, 53, 258, 278, 295, 
537) 5^5; 685-6, 688 ; as a token of sincerity, 
14, 701, 729. Business advantages of, 501, 
507, 510, 524, 52S. Cost of four years, 41. 
Elation in long-distance riding, 303. Enthu- 
siasm for. Unique power of the, vi., 484, 705. 
Freedom, the distinctive charm of, 255, 472. 
Gracefulness of, 6. 

Biographies, Index to contributors', Ixxi. 

Birthday Fantasie (verse), 22. 

Birthdays, Index to, Ixxi. Request for, 
7.7-8. 

Blue Ridge in a thunder-storm. My four-mile 
descent of the, 380. 

Boat-race management at New London, 130. 

Bone-Shaker Days, 391-406, xiv., 523, 541, 

543. 547- 
Book of Mine, and the Next (This), 

701-331, xix., Ixxxi. 
Books and Pamphlets on Cycling: Lists 

of American, in the market Aug. i, '86, 
655. Descriptions and reviews of, 672-So. 



Continental publications, 696-700. English 
books and maps, 681-8. Record-keeping, 
Blanks for, 676-7. Index to al! the fore- 
going, Ixxiv. Index to authors, publishers 
and printers of the same, Ixxvi. 

Books quoted or referred to by me. Index to 
non-cycling, Ixxvi. ; index to authors of the 
same, Ixxvii. 

Boots and shoes, 18, 21. 

Boston, Out from, 101-114, x. : Books and 
papers of cycling, 654-9, 662-5, 673-So. 
Clubs, 105, 767, 793. Hotels and horse- 
cars, 105. Indiflerence to my subscription 
scheme, 704, 708. Irish sea-coast settle- 
ment, 372. Landmarks, 105-6. League 
parades at, 371, 616, 61S. Maps and 
guides, 112-13. Pemberjon and Scollay 
squares contrasted, 104-5. Police ineffi- 
ciency at, 371, 616. Prince-of- Wales pro- 
cession, 471. Road-book, II I, 677. Scene 
of my learning the bi. (March 28, 1S79), 25. 

Breecheivs. trousers as an " extra," 17, 22. 

Bridges, Bicycling on the big, 87, 203, 225. 

Bristed's (C. A.) admirable defense of indi- 
vidual freedom, 727-8. 

British and Colonial Records, 531-72, 
xvii. 

Brokerage in the New York Custom House 
explained in detail, 368-9. 

Brooklyn: Clubs, 97, 5S6 ; Ferries, 87-8, 
97 ; Prospect Park, 89, 92, 585 ; Routes to 
and through, 86-90. 

Bugle calls and tactics. Books on, 679. 

Bull Run, Luray Cavern and Gettys- 
burg, 371-90, xiv., 348, 350-1. 

California : Danger signal against League 
hotels in, 609. League road-book of, 625, 
799. Touring routes, 475-6, 489-94. Wel- 
come to T. Stevens, 572. 

Camel-trails in Asia, 480. 

Campobello, Our afternoon on, 270. 

Canada, Mv Fortnight in, 310-32, xiii.: 
A. C. U.'s claim to, 631. Cursed by cheap 
hotels, 603, 320. Deplorable customs regu- 
lations, 311, 324, 575. New Brunswick 
references, 265, 270, 274, 790. Nova Scotia 
touring, 2S2-94. Prince Edward I.'iland, 
290. Quebec to Montreal, 575. Subscrib- 
ers to this book, 7S9-90. Superiority of 
roads, 297. Support of C. T. C, 636-7. 
Tameness of pcenery, 301. 

"Canadian Wheelmen's Association" (C. 
W. A.), 633-636 : Badge and motto, 635; 



GENERAL INDEX. 



XXlll 



Constitution and government, 634; Defini- 
tions of social status, 635; Finances and 
mambership, 635 ; Founders, 634 ; Monthly 
organ, 635, 659, 669-70 ; Road-book, 315-19, 
326-71 33°) "^S*^' ^^^^ Railroads on free 
lists, 59S. 

Canals, Index to, Ixiv. {See "Tow-path.") 

Castle Solitude in the Metropolis 
(/. e., the University Building), 426-72, xv. 

Cats' treatment by dogs, 409, 416, 425. 

Cemeteries, Index to, Ixiv. 

Charm of bicycling, iv. , i, 14, 472, 729. 

Cheap and nasty hotel-system not economical, 
606; condemned by C.T.C. sufferers,639-4o. 

Clergymen: Air of condescension, 727. 
Prizes for essays on wheeling, 658. Rela- 
tionship to college foundations, 435. Tour 
in Canada, 323-4 ; in Europe, 499. Veloci- 
pedists in '69, 391, 403. Wheeling reports, 
378. 5'2, 544, 564- 

Clothes, 13, 16-22, 307-8, 475. 4S5, 494> 50S, 
5(6. 537, 552, 565- 

Clubs (index, Ixiii.) : Directory of Ameri- 
can, 765-go. Drill books for, 679. Goy's 
Directory to English, 6S8. Formation of 
proves the sociability of cycling, 14. Houses 
in Baltimore, 590; Boston, 105, 767; New 
York and Brooklyn, 96-7, 586; Philadel- 
phia, 589; St. Louis, 652 ; Washington, 590. 

Coaching on the old National Pike, 243 ; as 
imitated on the tally-ho, iv., 281, 396. 

Coasting on the Jersey Hills, 159-78, xi. 

Colleges (index, Ixii.), as abodes of the only 
real aristocracy in America, 396 ; Conduct 
of youth at N. Y. U., 429; Endowments, 
435-7 ; Finances of, 437 ; Newspaper treat- 
ment of, 397 ; Religions control of, 435. 

Columbia College, References to, 131, 216, 
436-7. 

"Columbia, No. 234," 35-48, x. : Axle, 37, 
40, 45, 46. Backbone, 39, 40, 43. Bear- 
ings, 37, 40, 42. Brake, 40, 42. Bushing, 
40. Cam-bolts, 40. Cranks, 36, 40, 46. 
Handle-bar, 43, 45, 46, 306. Head, 43. 
Hub, 40. Mileage memorial placard, 48. 
Neck, 38, 40. Nickeling, 38, 40, 43. Oil 
cups, 37. Overlapping, 43. Pedal-pins, 
45, 47. Pedals, 37, 47. Rawhide bearings, 
43, 336- " Rebuilding " plans abandoned, 
47. Repairs, Cost of, 41. Rims, 45, 46, 350. 
Saddles, 37, 45. Spokes, 38, 45, 46, 350. 
Spring, 37, 43. Step, 39. Tires, 36, 37, 38, 
47, 48. Wrecked by runaway mules, 44. 



Concierge in Paris, Tyranny of the, 458. 

Connecticut, Shore and Hill-top in, 129- 
149, xi., 248-54 (index, 581) ; League road- 
book of, 625. {See " New Haven," " Yale 
College.") 

Contents-Table, ix.-xx. 

Contrasts between bicycling and other modes 
of long-distance tiMvcl, 303. 

Contributors' Records, Index to, Ixxi. ; 

Rules for, 717. 
Convicts as road-builders, 355, 563. 
Corduroy, Praise of, 19, 21, 307. 
Costumes for touring, 16-22, 307-8, 475, 485, 

494, 50"^, 537, 552, 565- 

Creeks and Brooks, Index to, Ixi. 

Curl, the Bestof Bull-Dogs, 407-25, xv. ; 
Allusions to, 305, 393, 471; Photo-gravure 
of (facing title-page). 

Custom-House rules as to cycles : Bel- 
gium, free entry ordered Feb. 6, '84, 599. 
Bermuda, discretionary, 358. Canada, pro- 
hibitory red-tape, Aug. 5, '81, 311. France, 
varying practice, 599, 600. Germany, vary- 
ing practice, 599. Holland, free entry, 

599. Italy, free entry ordered June i6, '85, 

600. Mexico, ten cents a pound gross 
weight, 600. Switzerland, varying practice, 
591. United States, free entry ordered Apr. 
9, '84, 370 ; first classed as carriage, instead 
of machinery, May 29, '77, 25. 

Customs officers. Experiences with, 2S2, 311, 
324. 333, 35'^, 36S-70, 51S, 575. 

"Cyclists' Touring Club" of England 
(C. T. C). 636-646 : "Amateurism," Defi- 
nitions of, 638, 643. American support, 
636, 642-4 ; allusions to, 619. Badges and 
uniform, 639. " B. T. C." as first named, 
615,636,644. Bi. Wi5,r/rf'.jnotices of, 602-4, 
643-4. Canada, Slight support given by, 
636,643. Chief Consuls, 636, 645. "Co- 
operative tailoring concern," 641. Coun- 
cil of 125 is constituted, How the, 636-7. 
Councilors in Apr., '86, List of, 645. 
" Creed" of L. A. W. vs. C. T. C, 644. 
Custom-House reforms attempted, 599, 600. 
Danger-board hotels, 602-4, 639-41. Dan- 
ger-boards, 643-4, 65'- Divisions, Size of 
the 37, 636. Executive power all lodged 
in the Secretary, 642. Finance committee, 
638. Finances in the U. S., 643. Finan- 
cial report of '85 analyzed, 641. Foreign 
members, "Amateurism" of, 638. Forgery 
confessed in court by the Secretary-Editor, 



xxiv TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 



Ixxxix. Gazette, The official, 641,687,691, 
Ixxxix. Governinent, Abstract of seventy 
rules for, 637-8. Handbook, 682, 637, 6S7. 
Hotel policy denounced by IVheelitig and 
Bi. IVarid, 602-4, ^4' ; by other sufferers, 
639-40 ; tariff shown in detail, 607. Humor- 
ous schemes for " a great future in the U. 
S.," 643-4. "International" pretensions, 
644. League tolerates C. T. C. in U. S. 
only as a social sentiment, 642, 644. Life 
memberships, 644. London region supplies 
a third of the membership, 636. Maps, 6S2. 
Meetings, 637, 642. Membership statistics, 
636. Journalism denounced, by the pre- 
siding judge of a London law-court, as 
" the lowest and vulgarest abuse," xci. 
N. C. U., Affiliations with, 63S, 646, 648. 
Officers, Election of, 637; in U. S., 645 ; 
list of in Apr., 'S6, 646. Publications, 63S, 
642, 6S7-S, §91. Quorum, 642. Railroads, 
Tariff for, 59S. Renewal list, 63S, 6SS. 
Representative Councilors, 636, 645. Road- 
book promised for '87, 642, 6S7. Secretary- 
Editor, Appointment, salary and duties of, 
637-8; autocratic power of, 642; compla- 
cency of, as to badges, hotels and Gazette, 
639, 641, 691 ; portrait gallery of, 691 ; repri- 
manded in court for literary forgery, xci. 
State consuls in America, List of, 643. 
Tailoring and trading accounts, 641. Tariff 
of hotels, 607; r. r.'s., 59S. Unimpor- 
tant allusions, 601-S, 615-16, 619, 665, 667, 
669, 681-SS, 693-5, 699-700, 765. Usurpa- 
tion of League functions resented, 644. 
Voting for officers, System of, 637. Weak- 
ness of perambulatory Council, 642. iVJieel- 
ing's criticisms of, 602, 639, 641. Women 
member";, 63S. 

Cyclometers: Butcher, 114, 127, 135, 147, 
322,374, 482, 500, 506-8, 511, 517, 519-21, 
524, 526, 52S, 529, 530. Church, 524. Ex- 
celsior, 128, 138, 189, 5oS-ir, 524, 52S, 666, 
714. Hernu, 546, 555. Lakin, 37S, 50S, 
524, 526-S, 797, 791. Lamson, 506. Liv- 
ingston, 714. McDonnell, 138, 149, 237, 
24^ 325. 388, 484, 508, 509, 510, 511, 512, 
513, 5'5-7. 5'9-20. 524. 527-30. 553. 569. 575. 
714. Pope, 24, 13s, 50S, 511, 513, 517, 520, 
523, 581. Ritchie Magnetic, 172, 507, 511, 
523. Spalding, 499, 508. Stanton, 508. 
Thompson, 517, 533. Underwood, 50S. 
Wealemefna, 533, 532. 

Distances, " U. S. Army" Table of, 6S0. 



Delaware (index, 5S9). 

Denmark : C. T. C. members, 636-7. 
Directory of Wheel.men, 765-99, xx. 
District of Columbia (index, 590). 
Dog as a companion in touring, 562, 565. 
Dogs, Anecdotes of, in biograj^hy of " Curl, 

the best of bull-dogs," 407-25. 
Down-East Fogs, In the, xii., 255-Si. 
Down-East tours of 'S4-'8s, 573-4. 
Drill books for bugle, tactics and singing, 680. 
Electrotypinc, Dates of, ix.-xx., 710. 

England and the English, 444-S, 530-69, 
636-51, 6SS-96, 790-94. "Amateurism" 
satirized by the Bat, 650. Aristocracy in 
the newspapers. Treatment of, 396. Auto- 
biographies of wheelmen, 531-45, 547-58. 
Book of bi.-tour made by Americans in 
'79. 673. Books and pamphlets on cycling, 
6S1-S. Class distinctions, 446-7. Conven- 
tional attempts at " naturalness," 448. 
Crystal Palace dog show of '72, 405. Cy- 
clists' Touring Club, 636-46, 68 1 {see spe- 
cial index, " C. T. C"). " Danger-board 
hotels of C. T. C.," Testimony of sufferers 
at, 604, 639-41. Diet of tourists, 537, 544. 
Evolution of bicycle from bone-shaker, 402. 
Halifax has an English atmosphere, 292. 
Hogg's (J. R.) exposure of "amateur- 
ism," 649. Humor in wheel literature. 
Ideal of, 693. Individuality, Obliteration 
of, 445-S. Journalism of cycling, 547-8, 
6SS-95, 706. Land's End to John O'Groal's, 
536, 554-7- London, 426-7, 436 (see spe- 
cial index). Longest 19 days' ride, 535-6. 
Longest year's record, 53 1-2, 55'S. Manners 
and customs in social life, 444-8. Maps, 
681-7. My '76 tour which never took place, 
406. Narrow-mindedness of business-men, 
484. National Cyclists' Ur.ion, 646-51 {see 
special index, " N. C. U."). Newspaper 
gossiper sent to jail by Lord Coleridge, 280. 
Newspaper prattle about the nobility and 
gentry, 396. Prince of Wales's visit to 
America, 469-71. Racing, 532-44, 547, 553-4. 
Racing men, IVheelbig' s social classifica- 
tion of, 629. Railroad and s. s. rates for cy- 
cles, 59S-9. " Rights and Liabilities of Cj'- 
clists," Law book on, 6S4-5. Road-books 
and guides, 550, 6S1-8. Road races, 532-44, 
553-8. Self-suppression the supreme law, 
445. Servitude to sen^ants, 444-7. Snobbery 
of the middle classes shown by "amateur- 
ism," 650. " Society of Cyclists," Dr.Rich- 



GENERAL INDEX. 



XXV 



aidson's 647. Social conditions sliown by 
iiiii-keepiiig customs and ideals, 602; by 
abusive personalities of cycling press, 695. 
Subscribers to this book, Attraction of, 
706 ; Names of, 790-2. Subscribers to 
Whielmeii's G.izetie, 662. Sunday riding, 
Statistics of, 5|i-2. " Tri. Association" 
and "Tri. Union," in N. C. U., 647. 
Wheeling biographies, 472-3. Worship of 
wealth, 446. Wales, Touring in, 673, 6S1. 
Yates (E.) s;nt to jail for libel, 2S0. 
" Er " abetter termination than " ist," 673-4, 

800. 
Erie Canal and Lai-ce Erie, The, 199- 

zoS, xi. 
Evarts as a talker for business only, 724. 
E.\emption from duty for tourists' cycles en- 
tering the United States, How my Ber- 
muda trip brought, 36S-70. 
Expenditures: Baggage and express, 41. 
Bermuda trip, 364. Custom-House charges, 
599-600. Elbow-breaking, 35. EKvell'stour, 
257. Fees to b:\ggagemen, 86, 96, 221, 596. 
Horse-scaring in '69, 395. Mammoth Cave, 
231. Nova Scotia hotels, 2S8, and tour, 
292. Repairs of machine, 41. Riding- 
clothes, 41. Scotch tourist, 546. Veloci- 
pedes of '69, 400. 
Fathers and sons as cyclers, 494, 517, 521, 

524, 531, 564- 
Fees: A. C. U., 631 ; C. T. C, 63S, 643 ; 
L. A. W., 624 ; N. C. U., 647, 649 ; Bag- 
gagemen, 86, 96, 221, 596; Ferries, 96; 
Horse-car lines, 86. 
Fifth Avenue, N. Y., 65, 4Si-4, 583. 
First bicycle ride in America, 330 ; in United 

States, 406. 
First " thousand-mile trail," 304, 532, 549, 

55'- 
Food of long-distancs riders, 480, 537. 
Fording the New Zealand rivers, 56S. 
Foreign Countries, Index to, Iviii. 

FOKTNIGMT I.M ONTARIO, A, 310-32, xiii. 

Forty Days Straightaway, 294-309, xiii. 

Four names for cyclers to honor, 370. 

Four Sp.ason>on a F'orty-Six, 24-34, x. 

France and the French : Autocratic rule 
of the concierge, 45S. Books and papers, 
698-9. Cycles at the custom house, 599, 
600. C. T. C. members, 636. Hatred of 
originality, 468. Invention of cycling in 
Olden time, i. Lallement at Ansonia and 
New Haven, 139-42, 394. Long-distance 



rides, 552-3, 558. Maps, 682. Paris, Allu- 
sions to, 2, 99, 2S0, 403, 406, 426, 448, 45S-9, 
A'io, 545, 55'. 55S, 5&S, 611, 645, 65i,6jS-9, 
792. Racing free from "amateurism," 
62S. Railroad rates, 559. Social ideals, 
463. Stevens's ride, 4S0. Subscribers to 
this book, 792. Union Velocipidique, 651, 
65S. Velocipcding in '68, 390, 403. 
" Free Advertising " : Explanation and de- 
fense of the policy, 653, 707, 718. Gained 
by authors and publishers from my scheme, 
653. 7'8; by hotels which give their best 
treatment to wheelmen, 602, 607, 609, 6c2, 
614 : by hotels which subscribe for this 
book, 605 ; by r. r. and s. s. routes which 
class cycles as baggage, 591 ; by this book 
from the cycling press, 704-g, 718-19; by 
wheel literature, 653. Given by Bi. World 
as League organ, 618 ; by the Pope Mfg. Co. 
to the trade in general, 659, 679; by racing 
men to cycles which win, 62S; by T. Ste- 
vens to the trade in general, 4S4; by trades- 
men to cycling books and papers, 653. 
Neglected chance at Coventry, 684. St. 
Louis sarcasms in Am. Wheelman, 6-;i. 
" Froth and foam," Racers likened to, v. 
Genealogy as a scientific study, 722. 
Geographical miscellany (index, Ixiii.). 
Germany and the Germans: Barthol's 
(H.)2Soo m. lour of '84, 551-2. Books and 
papers, 697. C. T. C. members, 636-7. 
Cycles at the custom house, 599. Fiske's 
(G. F.) tour, 522. L. A. W. members, 
617-18. Roads, 4S0-1, 522, 551-2. Ste- 
vens's (T.) ride, 480-1. Subscribers to this 
book, 792. Wheelmen's Union, 651, 697. 
Ghostly wheelinen in the fog, 268. 
Gloves, My preference as to, 18, 733, 
Gossip, Distinctions between verbal and 
printed, 2S0; American collegians and 
English nobility lied about by newspapers 
for similar reasons, 296-7. 
Grandfather's cycling record of 17,600 miles 
in three years, 1883-5, An Australian, 562. 
Grandfather's luckless contract as a cvcling- 

path builder, in 1825, My maternal, 180. 
Grant's (Gen.) sagacity as to personal peril, 

Anecdote of, 724. 
Great American Hog, The, 10, 596, 615, 621 ; 

Road law for checking, 584, 680. 
Greeting : to ray 3000 Co-partners (verses),' 

xcvi. 
Halifax, Pleasant impressions of, 292. 



XXVI 



TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 



Hamerton's (P. G.) reflections on solitude 
and independence, 467-g. 

Harvard College : Bartlett's (Gen. W. F.) 
noble speech at, in 1S74, 3S6. Buildings, 
434-5. Guide book to, 113. Jealousy of 
Yale, 25, 256. Newspaper lies about, 397. 
Stupidity as to boat-race management at 
New London, 131. Successful financial 
policy, 437. Unimportant allusions, loi, 
103, 494, 514, 658, 665, 767. Velocipeding 
in '69, 403. 

Hats and caps for touring, 18. 

Health is won by cycling, Books showing 
how, 6S5-6, 688. 

riealtlifulness of cycling, Examples of the, 
53, 25?, 27S, 295, 537, 565. 

Bills and Mountains, Index to, bt. 

BUstorical Statistics : Bermuda, 354-7. 
Brooklyn^ Bridge, 86. Central Park, 92-5. 
Long Island, 155. New Haven, 132 ; 
Velocipeding at, 400-2. New York City, 
Settlement of, 64 ; University of, 433-5, 
437-S. Prince Edward Island, 290. Pros- 
pect Park, 89. Shenandoah Valley, 346-8. 
Staten Island, 155. Washington Square, 
64-5. 432-4- 

Hog who thinks the roads of this continent 
are his private property (see " Porais 
Americatnis ''). 

Holland and the Dutch: C. T. C. mem- 
bers, 636-7. Cyclers' Union, 651, 700. 
Free entry for cycles, 599. Long day's 
ride, 553. Subscriber, 792. Tour, 522. 
Wheel literature, 700. 

Holland (Dr. J G.) as " the American Tup- 
per," Carl Benson's exposure of, 72S-9. 

Honor these four I 370. 

Horseback traffic in Kentucky, 226 ; traveler 
in Europe beaten by bicycler, 558. 

Horses, Cyclers' treatment of, 10 ; Runaways 
never caused by my bicycle, 57 ; Various 
allusions to, 237, 293, 321, 380, 395, 529, 
566, 571. 

Hotels, The Question of, 601-14, x\'iii., 
639-41, Ivii.: Alphabetical list of, 146. Bath- 
tubs wanted at, 601,602,614. Clerk's in- 
solence rebuked, 338. Constraint of life at, 
450. Index to those named in this book, 
612. Overcrowded by touring parties, 320. 
Recommendations of, 201, 221, 231, 23S, 
33'. 345> 348, 3S1. Where this book may 
be consulted, 609. Women patrons of, 
442, 450. Women waiters at, 13. 



HuD'^ON AND Lake George, 179-98, xi. 

Humors of the £oad: Acadians' picnic 
in the rain, 2S3. Astonishment at the 
novel vehicle, 8, 272, 379. Australians' 
greetings, 560. Binghamton B. C. 's con- 
tempt for my long-distance trophy, 308. 
Brave passenger and his apology. The, 
3S0. Car-drivers' repartee, 105. Cartoons 
of velocipeding, 390. Coaching-club photog- 
raphers take my back for a background, 
2S1. Compliments from the Small Boy, 6, 
'3> 48. 54- Cooking chickens in Virginia, 
350. Diffident introductions, 3. Dogs, 18, 
140, 565. Facetiousness of the Erie canal- 
lers, 8-9. Forced to mount tlie mail-coach. 
560. Free-lunch at East Macliias, 271. 
Frogging in the Shenandoah, 3S3. Good- 
bye chortle to the charmers of Calais, 
266. Great American Hog, The, 10, 596, 
615, 621. "Journalism" on the border, 
263. Larrigans for the Blue Noses, 265. 
Martinetism on Mt. Desert, 275-8. Mis- 
taken for an undertaker, 195. Newspaper 
lies about Rosenbluth's horse, 397 ; theo- 
ries as to " riding in the rain," 263. Re- 
torts courteous, S-n, 265, 396, 56S. Scissors- 
grinding, Request for, 225. Scouring the 
Connecticut River tow-path, in search of 
" my lost inheritance," 180. " Watching 
for the circus " (me in Me), 264. Women's 
wayside rudeness, 9, 11. World-wide ad- 
vice to T. Stevens, 477. 

Hundred mile road-race of '85 in Canada, 
320-2 ; English annual, '77 to '85, 554, 532-3. 
53S ; Reference to Boston, 516. 

Hungarian tourists, 4S1, 551, 553, 792. 

Ice velocipede of '69, 404. 

" Impressions " : Bermuda, 365. Gettys- 
burg, 385-6. Halifax, 292. Litchfield, 142. 
London, 406, 425, 448. Luray, 381-2. 
Mammoth Cave, 232, 381. New York 
Harbor, 99. Pemberton Square, 104. To- 
ronto, 31S. Washington Square, 432-3. 

Incidents and Accidents {see special index, 
Ixxxiii.; also, " Humors of the Road"). 

India, T. Stevens's 1400 mile ride through, 
in the summer of '86, 571-2. 

Indiana: League membership, 617-18. Road- 
book, 625. Road-reports from 5 counties, 
235. Subscribers, 7S5-6. Tours, 479, 486-8, 
519. Wheelmen'' s Record, xciii. 

Indian chief's longing. The, 295, 731. 

India-rubber cloth for luggage-roll, 22 ; cups 



GENERAL IXDEX. 



and pouches, iS, 57; clrinking-tubes, 22; 
overshoes, 21 ; soles uiisuited for touring, 

20. 

Institutions, Minor Cyclimg, 633-52, x. 
Inventions and patents, 520, 526, 550. 

Ireland and the Irish: Author in Amer- 
ica, 674. Bull-dog fanciers, 406, 409. " C. 
T. C. hotels" denounced, 640. Dublniand 
Killarney," Faed's " trips to, xcv. Journal- 
ism, 654, 695. Maps, 6S2-3. Members 
of C. T. C, 645-6, 68S. Pamphlet of 
tour in England, 6S6. Racing governed by 
I.e. A., 652. Road-guides, 6S5. Soldiers 
in our civil war, 422. Straightaway ride, 
by W. M. Woodside, 499. Subscribers, 
722. Touring report, 545. Wheeling statis- 
tics of \V. Bowles, 545. 

Islands, Index to, Ix. 

"1st" inferior to " er " as a verbal ending, 
673-4, 669, Soo. 

Italy: Barthol's (H.) tour, 552. Bolton's 
(.A. M.) tour, 549. Cycles at the Custom 
House, 600. Railroad rates, 599. Sub- 
scribers, 792, 79S. Tricycling in, Peniiells' 
book of, 530, 6S7. Wheel literature, 700. 

Japan: Stevens's tour, 572. Subscriber, 
792. 

Journalism of the Wheel, 654-700. Alpha- 
betical index to all cycling and sporting 
papers quoted or referred to in this book, 
Ixxii. American press of '86, 661-72. Argu- 
ment for free advertisement of it, 653-4, 
and by it, 718-9. Australian papers, 656, 
570. Belgian papers, 697. Bound volumes 
for libraries, 662-3, ^9'- Circulation, State- 
ments and opinions about, 654, 656, 659, 
661, 665, 669-70, 691, 69J-4, 697, 707. 
" Consolidation," Fallacy concerning, 659, 
663, 650. Dutch, 700. Editors, Sugges- 
tions to, 719. English press, Sketch of the, 
688-95, 650, 547-9 ; French, 698-g ; German, 
697, 699; Hungarian, 697; Italian, 700; 
League policy unaffected by press clamor, 
618-20, 630. List of 22 Am. and Eng. jour- 
nals, Aug. I, '85, 654. Norwegian, 700. 
Official organs, 618-21,650,720. Personal 
abuse. Specimens of, 694-5. Postal regis- 
tration for second-class rates, 619-20, 667. 
" Reading-notices," Ineffectiveness of, 
708-g, 718. Rivalry between " Coventry 
ring" and " Wheeling crew," 690, 694-5, 
547-9. Spanish, 700. Sporting and out- 
side papers support cycling, 672, 695-6. 



Southern papers (U. S.), 670, 672. Supple- 
mentary details. May i, 1S87, xciv. Swed- 
ish, 700. Touring reports less attractive 
than race reports, 716. Treatment of my 
subscription scheme, 704-9. Western papers 
(U. S.), 660-1, 669, 671-2. Writers, pub- 
lishers and printers, Index to, Ixxiii. 

Journalism in general : Index to all non- 
cycling periodicals quoted as referred to in 
this book, Ixxvii. Injury of printed gossip 
in " society papers," 281. Inventiveness 
of local editors on the Down-East border, 
263-4. Lies told " for revenue only '" : 
against the nobility in England, — against 
the collegians in America, 396-7. Remark- 
able run by my white horse's ghost of '69, 
spuned by editorial scissors, from Maine 
to California, 397-8. Reminiscences of six 
years' Atlas-business, in holding up the 
World, 720-1. Suggestions to reviewers, 
viii. Tupperism and Greeleyism rebuked 
by Charles Astor Bristed, 727-8. 

Ke.vtucky and its Mammoth Cave, 
224-37, "'■■ (index, 590). 

Khorassan and Koordistan, T. Stevens's ad- 
ventures in, 481, 483, 570. 

Lake George and the Hudson, 179-98, xi. 

Lakes and Ponds, Index to, Ix. 

Lakin cyclometer prize for 1885 mileage, 527-8. 

Lallement at Ansonia, 139-41, 394. 

Lanterns, iS, 516, 518. 

Larrigan manufactory, 265. 

Last Word, The, 800. 

Lawyers as wheelmen, 503, 511, 533. 

League of American Wheelmen, xviii., 
615-33 : A inatenr Athlete as official organ, 
619, 667-8. "Amateur," Definition of, 624 ; 
racing men expelled by the, 629. Appoint- 
ment of officers, 622, 624. Bi. World as 
official organ, 618, 663, 665. Badge, 616, 
639. Bookmaster, 623, 627, 586. Bulletin, 
Expenses and receipts of, 620, 661, Ixxxiv. 
California's certificate against League ho- 
tels, 609 ; roadbook, 625. Chief Consuls, 
617,622,623. Committees, 622, 627. Con- 
suls, 624. "Creed" vs. C. T. C, 644. 
Defalcation of Secretarj'-Editor, Ixxxiv. 
Elections, 623, 626. English editors' at- 
tempt to discredit its " time," 547, 626. 
Executive Committee, 622-3, 627, Ixxxiv. 
Founded on my broken elbow, 24. Gov- 
ernmental reform, Pres. Bates on, 626. 
Hand-books, 625, 677. Hostility to C. T. 



xxvlii TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 



C. encroachments, 644. Hotels, Policy 
denounced, 601, 641. Hotels, Appointment 
of, by chief consuls, 624, 609. Incorpora- 
tion proposed, 626. Life memberships, 624. 
New York Division, Elaclion law and sta- 
tistics of, 626. Marshals, 623, 627. Meet- 
ings, 623. Membership, Committee on, 

622, 627 ; Geogiaphical statistics of, 617-18 ; 
Mode of applying for, 624 ; Two arguments 
for, 621. Officers, Duties of, 621-24; Elec- 
tion of, 623, 626 ; Meetings of, 623 ; Names 
05,626-28; Praiseof, 618, 621. Offshoots: 
A. C. U. and C. W. A., 62S, 633. " Organ- 
ship " in '84, Bids of various papers for, 6ig. 
Parades, '80 to '86, 615-1S, 21, 225, 371. 
Political power, Pres. Bates on, 621. Presi- 
dency, Argument against " rotating " the, 
617. President, 616, 622-3, 627. " Pro- 
fessional,'.' Definition of, 624. Publication 
of road-books, 625. Quorum, 622. Races 
at N. Y. and Boston, 616. Racing Board, 

623, 627, 629-30, 633. Racing men expelled 
for " amateurism," 629. Railroads class- 
ing bicycles as baggage, 594. Representa- 
tives, 617, 622-3. Rights and Privileges, 
Committee on, 621-2, 627. Road-books of 
State Divisions, 625, 677, 581-2, 584. "Rota- 
tion," Protest against official, 618-21. Rules 
and Regulations, Committee on, 622, 627. 
Salary of Secretary-Editor, 622 ; of Sec- 
Treas. N. Y. Div. , 626. State Divisions, 

622, 625-6 ; officers in service Oct. 30, '86, 
627-8. Steamship routes on free list, 593. 
Subscribers to this book. Names of officers 
who are, 765-S9. Touring Board, 623, 627. 
Transportation Committee, Appointment 
of, 622 ; names of, 627 ; effective work for 
r. r. concessions, 591 ; neglect of the water 
routes, 593. Treasurer, 617-19, 622, 627. 
Unimportant allusions, 94, 113, 119, 128, 
154, 176-8, 199, 224, 242, 281, 371, 372, 488, 
493. 504, S08, S'O. S'6-19. 523-6. 530. 603-8, 
665, 667-8, 670, 675, 693, 704-5, 715, 717, 
720, 765-89, 800. Washington parade, 371. 
Wheel as official organ, 619, 667. Vice- 
President, 616, 622, 623, 627. Votes con- 
trolled by, 615, 621. Voting for officers of, 

623, 626, Ixxxix. 

Legn'-Tpnder deci>;ion, Recrret for the, 464. 

Legislation against Cycling : Attempts in 
Ohio, 621 ; in New Jersey, 588, 725. Com- 
mon law a defense, 584, 615, 6S0. Test 
case at Central Park, 93-5, 585, xc. 



Library of N. C. U. at London, 650. 

Litchfield as a typical village, 142. 

Loadstone Rock, Comparisons to, 354, 724. 

Log keeping by tourists. Books for, 676. 

London (,sce " England," " C. T. C." and 
" N. C. U.") : Books and papers of cycling, 
6S1-S. Characterization of by Cowper, 406 ; 
by Dr. Johnson, 426, 436. C. T. C. takes 
one-third its members from region of, 636. 
Dog show of 1872, 405. Halifax as a 
reminder of, 292. Journals of cycling, 
688-95,654,547-9. Maps, 6S1-2. Queen's 
progress through the mob, 441. Seclusion 
in, My, 405-6, 427, 471. " Secretary-Editor 
of C. T. C." rebuked for forgery and vulgar 
abuse, by Mr. Justice Wirs, xcii. So- 
ciety journalist sent to jail, by Lord Cole- 
ridge, 280. Subscribers to this book, 791. 
" Views " inferior to those of N. Y., 99, 
452. 

Long -Distance Routes and Riders, 
473-501, xvi. 

LoNC Island and Staten Island, 150-58, 
xi. ; Road book and maps, 584, 625. 

Loquot, The incomparable, 365. 

Luggage-carriers, Lamson and Z. & S., 17, 
22, 45, 714. 

Luray Cavern, Praise of, 381-2. 

IMacadam in the U. S., The first, 242 ; Primi- 
tive mode of applying it on the Shen- 
andoah pike, 345. 

Machines, Breakage and repairs of, 37-41, 487, 
492, 496, 498. Guides to, 550, 675, 683-7. 

Maine (index, 573), Touring party in, 255-81. 

"Maker's Amateurs": Expulsion of by 
L. A. W. and N. C. U., 629-30, 648-9. 
Classed as " proniateurs " by A. C. U., 
632. Definition of, 632. 

Makes of bicycles and tricycles mentioned 
in this book, Indexes to, l.\xviii. 

Malaria cured by bicycling, 295, 308. 

Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, 231-2, 381-2. 

Manhattan Island, Geography of, 64; En- 
trance to, 84. {See " New York City.") 

Maps: Adirondacks, 187, 211. Berkshire 
Co., Ms., 112. Boston, 113. Brooklyn, 
99,584. Bufifalo, 588. Canada, 331. Cats- 
kil's, 1S7. County, 99, 112, 177, 187, 682. 
Connecticut, 99, 112, 113, 148, 177, 293. 
England, 6S1-7. France, 6S2. Ireland, 682. 
Kentucky, 590. Lake George, 99. Lon- 
don, 6S1-2. Long Island, 99, 154, 584,625. 
Maine, 575. Massachusetts, 112-13, 176. 



GENERAL INDEX. 



XXIX 



Mt. Desert, 2S1. New Brunswick, 331. 
New Kngla.id, 113, 33 1- New Hampshire, 
577. NiW Jersey, 100, 159, 176-7. New 
York City, 100. Nova Scocia, 293. Ohio, 
625. f)iitario, 331. Orange, 175, 5S4, 
588. Rhode Island, 581. Scullaiid, 6S1-3. 
Springfi-kl, 126, 254. State, 112. Stalen 
Island, 95, 158, 625. Vermont, 57S. Vir- 
einia, 352. Westchester Co., 99, 100. 

Maps Published by .-Vdains, 100, 113, 149, 
'77, 33 '1 352-5. Barkman, 584, 625. Beers, 
99, 126, 148-9, 174-5, 177, 1S7, 577. Bradley, 
254. Bromley, 176. Collins, 6S3. Coltons, 
99, ii3,'i49. '53, T77, 1S7, 293, 331, 352, 
575. 577. 579. 58", 590- Cupples, Up- 
ham & Co., 1 12-13. Gill, 683. Heald, 
154. Jarrold & Co., 6S3. Johnson, 352. 
Knight & Leonard, 243. Letts, 6Si-2. 
Mason & Payne, 681-2. Merrill, 198. 
Paul & Bro., 588. Philip & .Son, 682-3. 
Smith, 176. Steiger, 100. Stoddard, 187, 
211. Tflintor, 198. Walker & Co., 113, 
126. W.illin?, 576. Watson, 15 f. 

MassachusstfcS (index, 579) : Road-reports, 
101-28. General Bartlatt's message, as the 
representative soMier of, 386. Algernon 
Sidney's motto variously interpreted, 3S6, 
466. Myself as a native of, 367, 372, 722. 

May Fourth, 18S7 (verses), xcvi. 

Medals for long-distance riding, 553, 559, 562. 

Medical men's experience in wheeling, 510, 
522 ; testimony for, 62, 658. 

Memorial tributes to Gen. Bartlett and Maj. 
Winthrop, as typical Yankee heroes in the 
civil war, 386, 439. 

Mexico: Cycles at the custom house, 600; 
subscribers to this book, 790. 

Mileage statistics, Annua!(.'\nierican), 503-30 ; 
(Australasian), 562-9; (English), 531-58. 

Misprint of price ($1.50 for $2), 732, 734, 799. 

Mistresses and wives, 442-4. 

Mountain Peaks and Ranges, Index to, 

lix. 
Mt. Desert, Two days' wheeling on, 275-9. 
Mules' perversity, 9, 44, 199, 20S, 379. 
Music and songs for wheelmen, 679, 686, 693. 
My Autobiography, Index to, Ixxix. 
My bull-dog's life and adventures, 407-25. 
My prize essay (which didn't take the prize), 

" On the Wheel," 1-14, 657-S, 702, iii. 
" My Second Ten Thousand," Proposals for, 

716-7, 211, 501, 573, 590. 
My 234 Rides on " No. 234," 49-63, x. 



Nadal's (E. S.) impressions of social life in 

London and New York, 447-9. 
Names: Alphabetical lists of 1476 persons 
meinioned in the main text of this book, 
Ixv.-lxxi. ; of 3400 subscribers, 734-64, 794- 
6; of 3482 towns, Ixviii.-Ixxviii. 
" National Cyclists' Union " of England 
(N. C. U.), 646-651 : "Amateurism," Defi- 
niiion of, 63S ; financial dilemma produced 
by, 64S ; proposed abolition of, 6(9; vacil- 
lation in treatment of, 630, 649. " B. U.," 
as first named, 647. Championship meet- 
ings and gate-money, 649. Council of Dele- 
gates, 647. Danger-boards, 651. Exec- 
utive Cominittee in '86, 646 ; in '87, Ixxx. ; 
functions of, 648 ; logical criticisms of, by 
J. R. Hogg, 649 ; threatened libel-suits 
against, 630, 649. Financial gains in '85 
and losses in '86, 648. Libel suits, Danger 
of, 630, 649. Librarian's appeal for dona- 
tions, 650. Local Centers, officers of, in '84, 
646 ; finances of in '86, 64S ; functions of, 
648, 651. Medals for record-breaking, 651. 
Membership, 647 ; Dissatisfaction of, 649. 
IMismanagement of '86 races, 64S. " Ob- 
jects " officially defined, 647. Officers, Elec- 
tion of, 647 ; Names of, 646, xciii. Publi- 
cations, 650. Quorum, 647-8. Races of 
'86 mismanaged, 648. Racing-register pro- 
posed, 649. Record-medals, 651. Refer- 
ence library, 650. Representation, Mode 
of, 647-8. Reserve-fund, 648-9. Review, 
Tlie official quarterly, 650. Roads, Efforts 
for improved, 647, 650. " T. A." and " T. 
U." absorbed, 647. Unimportant allusions, 
615, 686, 693, 695. IVlueliiig' s criticisms, 
629-30, 648-51, xciii. 

National Pike, The Old, 242-3. 

Natural Bridge and Luray Cavern, Sugges- 
tions for visitors to, 349-51, 382, 495. 

Negroes' amusement over bicycling, 272, 379 ; 
dread of the medicine-men, 431; neat ap- 
pearance at Bermuda, 364. 

New Brunswick : Larrigans at St. Ste- 
phen's, 265, 270. Our afternoon on Campo- 
belln, 270. 515. Tour to St. John, 274. 

New Hampshire (index, 575) : Tours among 
the Wliite Mountains, 575-7. 

New Haven : Bone-shaker days of 1869 at, 
391-405. East-Rock Park (verses), 136. 
LalleiTient at, 139, 394. Plan of, 132. 
Roads around, 132-3, 13S, 149. Velociped- 
ing at, 391-405. (^See " Vale College,") 



XXX 



TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 



New Jersey (index, 588) : Road-reports, 
159-78. State Geological Survey and Offi- 
cial Atlas, 159, 176. 

New South Wales: Cyclists' Union, 652. 
Journalism, 564. Subscribers, 793. Tour- 
ing. 564-6- 

Newspaper lying, A celebrated case of, 395-S ; 
A circumstantial case, 263-4. American and 
English ideals of compared, 396-7. 

Newspapers as factories for the making and 
spreading of gossip by steam machinery, 2S1. 

New York City : 64-100, x. ; 426-72, xv. 
(index, 582) : Appletons' Dictionary, 100. 
Artists' studios, 430. Battery, 98. Big 
Bridge, 86. Blackwell's Island, 69. Books 
and papers of cycling, 584, 654-5, 665-9, 674, 
677. Brooklyn, 87-90, 97. Central Park, 
67. 93> 95> 5^5- Club-houses, 96-7, 5S6, 
772-4. Directories, 100. Elevated r. r., 
98, 584. Fees on horse cars and ferries, 
86, 96. Ferries, 81, 85, 87, 88, 91, 168, 
583. Fifth Avenue, 65, 451-4, 583. Fort 
Lee ferry as entrance, 84. Geography, 
64-5. High Bridge, 70, 5S3. Hotels and 
restaurants, 611. Lightness of "social 
pressure," 427-8, 448-9. League parade 
and banquet, 617. Maps and guides, 99-100. 
Novelists' limitations, 448-9. Obelisk, Erec- 
tion of the, 465. Pavements, 66, 584. Police 
rules, 67, 452. Prince of Wales's visit, 
469-71. Public spirit, or " sense of local- 
ity," Lack of, 427, 436. Races of League 
in '81 a failure, 616. Restaurants, 611. 
Sidewalks, 67. Social life. Limitations of, 
448-52. Storage, of wheels, 86, 96. Street- 
system, 65, 451, 586. Subscribers to this 
book, 772-5. " Thirtieth Street," Con- 
trasted ideals of, 452. Trade addresses, 
100. Views from Trinity spire, 99. Veloci- 
peding in '69, 403. IVheePs support of my 
canvass, 704-8. 

New York State (index, 582) : Road-re- 
ports, rJo-S, 179-223, 246-8. 

New Zealand: "Cyclists' Alliance," 652. 
Journalism, 6g6. Population, railroads and 
telegraph, 570. Subscribers, 794. Touring 
and road-riding, 567-70. 

Niagara and Some Lesser Waterfalls, 
209-223, xi., 202, 586. 

Nickel plate, Advantages of, ig-22. 

Night riding, 493, 498, S'^, 533. 537. 539, 
553-8. 

Norway : Cycling paper, 700 ; touring, 549. 



Nova Scotia and the Islands Beyond, 
282-94, xii. 

Obituary of Cola E. Stone, 323. 

" Object-lessons " in long-distance tours, 
301-3 ; in neat riding costume, 19. 

Oceans and Sotmds, Index to, Ixi. 

Ohio : Attempted legislation against cycling, 
621. Cycling monthly, 526, 660. League 
books and maps, 625, 677. Mileage re- 
ports, 526. Railroads, 594. Touring re- 
ports, 245, 479, 48S, 501, 519. 

Omnibus roof-riding, gg, 406, 5S4. 

Ontario, A Fortnight in, 310-32, xiii. 
{See " Canada.") 

Outside Dog in the Fight (verses), 412. 

Parades of League, 615-1S; badly managed 
at Boston and Washington, 371; Cincin- 
nati velveteen at Chicago, 224. 

Paris : Autocracy of the concierge, 458-9. 
Cycling literature, 698-9, 792. The invisi- 
ble countess, 2S0. Velocipeding in '68, 390, 
403, 406. " Views " and " fickleness " con- 
trasted with New York's, 99, 586. 

Park Commissioners, Contests with N. Y., 
92-95, 585-6, xciii. 

Parks and Squares, Index to, l.xi. 

Patch (Sam) at Genesee Falls, 215. 

Pathology : cramps, 59-60 ; faeces, 307, 536 ; 
fever, 552; saddle-soreness, 307, 537 ; thirst, 

63. 537- 

Pennsylvania (index, 589) ; Scenic impres- 
sions of my autumn ride across, 302-3, 341-4. 
Senator Cameron as a phrase-maker, iv. 
(See " Philadelphia.") 

" Personal " quality of the wheel, as regards 
its rider, 592. 

Personal statistics, Specimens of, 473-572 ; 
Request for, 717. 

Personifications : Bicycle, 246. Church, 
324, 447. Custom, 444. Death, 254, 259, 
732. Devil, 8, 482. Evil One, 401. Fame, 
465, 728. Fate, 45, 62, 92, 396, 731. For- 
tune, 380. Freedom, 472. Globe, 304. 
God, 481. Government, 447. Justice, 459. 
Life, 44, 472, 733- Memory, 136. Moon, 
444. Nature, 25, 54, 63, 303, 3S2. Nep- 
tune, 364. New Year, 390, 399. North, 
3S6, 439. Old Year, 391, 590. Past, 309. 
Providence, 457. Safety, 505. Saw-horse, 
420. Scythe-Swinger, 725. Seventy, 44. 
South, 385, 386. Sun, 444. Time, 391, 
465, 472, 656, 725. Truth, 63. Universe, 
304. Velocipede, 401-2. West, 386. 



GENERAL INDEX. 



XXXI 



Persons named in this book, Index to 1476 
(exclusive of the 3400 subscribers named 
on pp. 734-99), Ixv.-Ixxi. 
Plliladelphia : "Association for Advance- 
ment of Cycling," 5559. Books and papers 
of cycling, 654, 660, 674. Riding routes, 
164, 377. 3^S-g, 495, 497, 499^ j,,. 

Philosophical and Social (index, Ixxxi.). 
Photographing, Amateur, 260, 269, 271, 546. 
Pictures and sketclies, 279, 475,493, 534, 552, 

55'', 656-60, 662, 665-75, 683-93. 
Poetry and Verses (see "Quotations"): 
ytneas to Dido, 305. After Beer, 15. 
Apostrophe to the Wheel, 246. Birthday 
Fantasie, A, 23. Boating at Bermuda, 
353-4, 367. Bull-Doggerel, 409, 411-12, 
420,425- Carmen Bellicosum, 186. Carpe 
Diem, 472. Champion Bull-Dog, 409, 4 1 1. 
Cui Bono? 309. Drink Hearty,' 63. East 
Rock, 136. Gather the Roses wliile ye 
May, 472. Greeting to my Co-pariners, 
xcvi. Holyoke Valley, 136. In the 
Yacht Kulinda, 353-4, 367. Kaaterskill 
Falls, 216. Last Word, The, 800. May 
Fourth, 1SS7, xcvi. Outside Dog in the 
Fight, The, 412. Pinaforic Chant, 800. 
Quashiboo, 444. Springt der Sam Patsch, 
216. Sursum Corda, 70,. Touring Alone, 
34- Triolet to "Two-Thirty-Four," 49.' 
Triumph, 304. Velocipede, 401. Wheeling 
Large, 309. Wheelocipede, 390. 
Political allusions, 309, 370, 3S6, 421-2, 4.^2, 

450. 460, 464, 547, 585, 724, 726-7. 
"Politics" : as affected by wheelmen's votes, 
5S5, 615, 621; as contrasted to wheeling, 
309 ; 3=; related to N. Y. parks, 92, 5S5 
Pope Mfg. Co. : Advertising pamphlets and 
calendars, 678-So. Bi. IVor/d v,,pture, 664. 
Columbia bicycles and tricycles mentioned 
m this book Tindex, Ixxviii.), 24-63. Offices 
in four chief cities, 799. Portraits and 
biographies of its president, Col. A. A. 
Pope, 680 ; my estimate of his business- 
standing and sagacity, 712, vi. Prizes for 
essays and pictures on wheeling, 657-S, 702 
Support of my publication .scheme, 703' 7,,! 
13, 799- ly/teehnan, published bv, 659-60 
PorcusAwericnimsi^h^ Horse-driving Ho- 
who assumes the highways of this continent 
as his own private property), 10, 57, 596 
615. 621 ; road law for, 584, 680, 684-5 
Portraits, Lists of wheelmen's, 675, 680 
685-6, 689, 691, 693. ' 



Portraits, The exchanging of, 2S0. 

Postage of C T. C. Gazette, 641 ; of i,. ^ 

iV. Bulletin, 619-20. 
Potomac, Alokg the, 238-45, xii. 
Preface (5000 words) iii.-viii. 
Price misprinted ("$1.50" for " I2 "), 732, 

734, 799- 
Prince of Wales's visit to the room where 

this book was written, 469-71. 
Prize competitions. Literary, artistic, 657-8. 
"Professional," as defined by L. A. W., 
624, 633 ; A. C. U., 632 ; C. W. A., 635 ;' 
N. C. U., 63S. (See "Amateurism.") 
" Promateur," A. C. U. definition of, 632. 
Proverbs : 604, 6S0, 702, 722, 727 ; (Latin) 62, 

2S0, 444, 429, 459, 6So.- 
Pseudonyms, Request for, 718. 
Public Buildings, Index to, Ixii. 
Publishers' reciprocation and corrections 

asked for, 718-9. 
Quashiboo Bull (verses), 444. 
Queensland: Cycling, 652. Subscribers, 793. 
Quorum : L. A. W., 622; A. C. U., 631; 

C. T. C.,642; N. C. U., 647-8. 
Quotations: French vi., I, 24, 7,2, 727 
German, 2.6. Greek, viii., 457, 7,8, 724" 
Italian, 640. Latin, iii., 62, .30, 280, 305, 

3S6, 429, 437, 444, 45g^ ^g5_ j^^^ gg^' 

Verses, vii., 34, 36, ,36, .86-7, 216, 246,266, 
304, 305, 309, 323, 353-4, 367, 391, 402, 406, 
409, 4>i, 412, 420, 425, 430, 444, 447, 45g, 
465-6, 472, 505, 615, 7or, 727-31. 
Races: Australia, 559-67; England, 532-58 ; 
for 100 miles, 513; not known in bone- 
shaker days, 399 ; on the road, 127, 320-2 ; 
participants' allusions to, 509, 5,6, 523, 529,' 
537: straightaway courses in Canada and 
Shenandoah Valley, 297, 590. 
Racing, Government of in America, 622, 
627-30. Australia, 652; Canada, 633-6 i 
England, 629-30; France, 628, 651; Ger- 
many, 651; Ireland, 652; New Zealand, 
652. Social insignificance of, v. Speed 
more desirable than social subtleties, 629, 
630- Statistics, American books of, 675' 
6?o. Trade promotion of, v., 716. 
Railroads (.r^^ "Transportation Tax," 
591-600, X.; also index, Ixi.) : Cycling on 
the tracks of, 26, 73, 12 r, .28, 183, .90, 193, 
194, 197, 212, 237. Latest free list, xc' 
Tasmania, 563. New Zealand, 570. 
Rain, Riding in the, 263, 534. 
Record-keeping, Blank books for, 676, xcv. 



XXX u 



TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 



Records of Contributors, 473-572 (indexes, 
xvi., xvii., Ixxi.) ; Suggestions for prepar- 
ing, 717. 

Restaurants in New York, 611. 

RevoUitions of bi. wheels, Statistics of, 563. 

Rhode Island (index, 5S1). 

Kiglils and liabilities of wheelmen. Legal 
treatises on the (American), 5S4, 6S0 ; (En- 
glish), 684-S. 

Rinks for velocipeding in 1S69, 393-4, 400-3. 

Rivers and Valleys, Index to, lix. 

Road-books: "American Bicycler," The, 
the earliest, 674. Berkshire County, Ms., 
700. Boston, III, 655, 677. California, 
625. Canada, 330, 636, 677. Cape Ann, 
655. Connecticut, 5S2, 677. Costs and 
conditions of making, 715. C. T. C, 642, 
6S7. England, 6S1-2. Essex County, Ms., 
112,655, 677. Gloucester, Ms., 655. In- 
diana, 625. Kentucky, 590, 678. Long 
Island, 584, 625, 655, 678. Maryland, 589. 
Massachusetts, 581, 625,677-8. Michigan, 
677. New Jersey, 177, 589. New York, 
Ixxxix., 584,625,678(221). Ohio, 625, 677. 
Pennsylvania, 177,589. Springfield (map), 
254. Vermont, 579. Western New York, 
221, 677. 

Road-i'ecords, Log-books for, 676-7. Sugges- 
tions for keeping, 717. 

Roads: Asia Minor, 4S1-2. Bermuda, 355-7. 
China, 572. England, 531-58,681-2. France, 
480,552,558. Germany, 480, 551-2. India, 
571-2. Japan, 572. Persia, 481-2, 570. 
Danger-boards on bad hills in England, 
643-4, 648, 651. Defense by me of Amer- 
can roads as suitable for touring, 11 ; of 
Canadian as superior to U. S., 297, 300, 
330 (opposing testimony, 320, 324). Im- 
provement and maintenance of, as shown in 
"Agricultural Reports of Massachusetts," 
680; " N. C. U." pamphlets, 647. Legal 
books as to wheelmen's rights on the, 584, 
647, 680, 684. Sign-boards less needed than 
road-books, 644. Superiority of asphalt, 
584, 5S8. 

" Rotation " in office. My protest against, 
617-18. 

Russia : Book of touring from, 687. Czar's 
absolutism. Allusions to the, 45S, 724. T. 
Stevens's proposed route through, 570. 
Subscriber, 792, 799. 

Sardine industry in Maine, The, 270, 274. 

Scenic descriptions. Attempts at, 99, 104, 224, 



227, 26S, 292, 299, 301-5, 357, 365, 3S0-2, 
42S-34. 

Scotland and the Scotch : Books of roads 
and tours, 684-6. C. T. C. Council, 645-6. 
H. Callan's touring report, 545. Journals, 
695, xciv. Maps, 681-3. Road-races to 
John O'Groat's, 553-7. Subscribers, 792. 

Separate roadway, English estimates of mile- 
age on, 532-54 ; My own, 31. 

Servants as rulers of society, 445-50, 45S-9, 
729. 

Shoes, Mileage statistics of, 21, 719. 

Sidewalk riding, Rules about, in New Haven, 
395, 402 ; in N. Y., 67 ; in Prospect Park, 
92, 586-7. 

Small Boy's relation to cycling, The, 13, 48. 

Snow and ice cycling, 246-54, 404, 475-6, 
491-2, 507, 522, 527, 555, 559, 570. 

Social and Philosophical (index, Ixxxi). 

" Society of Cyclists," Evolution of the, from 
the English " T. U.," 647. 

Solitude and independence, as described and 
illustrated by P. G. Hamerton, 467-9. 

Songs and music for cyclers, 655, 679, 686, 693. 

South, Political allusions to the, 3S6, 724. 

South Australia : Cyclists' Union, 652. Re- 
ports of tourists, 560-1. Subscribers, 793. 

Southern type of county-towns, 303. 

Spain: A. M. Bolton's story of cycling in, 
549, 6S3. Velocipede published at Madrid, 
700. 

Springfield, The Environs of, 115-128, 
xi., 251-3, 579-80 : Bicycle Club forms "A 
C. U." to provide "amateurs" for its 
tournament, 63 1. Birthplace of myself and 
my ancestors, 722. " Coventry ring " jour- 
nals of England profess to doubt fast rac- 
ing " time," 547. Maps and guides, 126-7, 
254. Printing Company and its contract to 
manufacture this book, viii., 706, 710-11, 
799. Wheelmen'' s Gazette, 661-2, 706-7. 
" Wheelmen's Reference Book," 675, 710. 

Squares and Parks, Index to, Ixi. 

" Star" bicycle excels in coasting, 270, 274. 

States, Summary by, 573-90, xviii. Index 
and abbreviations of, Iviii. Representation 
of in League, 617, 61S, 62S. Residences 
of subscribers to this book, classified geo- 
graphically by, XX., 765-89 (705). 

Statistics from the Veterans, 502-30, 
xvi. (Sre " Historical Statistics.") 

Steamships (see " Transportation Tax," 
591-600, X. ; also " Ferries "). 



GENERAL INDEX. 



XXXIU 



Stevens's (T.) Tour round the World : 
San Ki-aiicisco to Boston, 473-So ; Liver- 
pool to Teheran, 4S0-3 ; Persia, Afghan- 
istan, India, China and Japan, 570-2. 
Stockings, Mileage statistics of, 21,208, 729. 
Straightaway for Forty Days, 294-309, 

xiii. 
Straightaway courses for long-distance rac- 
ing. Best American, 297, 590. 
Straightaway day's rides of 100 in. (.Ameri- 
can), 113-14, 121, 12S, 138, 154, 3'2, 3'4. 
319, 321-3, 37S, 4S0, 493, 49S, 515 ; (Austra- 
lasian) 559-6/ ; (English) 534, 536, 547, 551, 

553-7- 

Straightaway rides of 3 and 4 days. Longest 
American, 4 98. 

Straightaway staj-s in saddle, 53, 122, 128, 
13S, 14S, 183,202, 25S, 3131 3'9. 343. 3S8, 
493.499, 510. 514. 516, 522. 527.- 530. 534, 
539, 5to-i. 546, 559. 575- 

Subscribers, The Three Thousand, 
734-64, xix. ; Allusions to, vi., vil., 64, 353, 
472. 484, 55S, 569, 573, 70'-20, 732- Geo- 
graphical directory of, 765-94, (705). Sup- 
plementary list of latest 200, with " trade 
directory," 794-9. 

" Swe'ls " not patrons of cycling, 695. 

Switzerland : Custom House rules, 599. 
Cycling Union, 650. C. T. C. Division, 
637. Englishmen's tour, 532, 542. Sub- 
scriber, 732. 

Tables of mileage, 505, 535, 540, 542, 544, 
573-4- 

Tasmsinia: Cyclists' Union, 652. Excur- 
sionists' r. r. guide, 563. Road-racing and 
touring, 563-4. Subscribers, 794. 

Taylor's (G. J.) patent crank lever, 520. 

Thames and its tributaries. The, 129, 681. 

Thousand Islands to Natural Bridge, 
333-52, xiii. 

Tires, Excellent service of, 37-38, 47, 521, 538. 

Tool carrjing, 18, 22. 

Toronto, Impressions of, 31S. 

Touring parties' reports, 183, 1S7, 192, 197, 
19S, 215, 216, 218, 244, 245, 257-79, 3'4->5, 
320-5, 34"<, 377, 500, 50', 5»S, 542. 5^. S^o- 

Touring Routes: Adirondacks, 211, 587. 
Australia, 564-6. Baltimore, 377, 589. 
Berkshire Hills, The, 121, 142-3, 147-S, 
'93-4, 208, 581, 700. Boston to Ports- 
mouth, 101-2 ; to Providence, 107 ; to 
Springfield, 103, no, 117, 128, 181, 208. 
Buffalo, 5S8. California, 475-6, 489-94. 



Catskills, 1S7-9, 4SS, 498. Conn. River, 
117-20, 179-84, 57S-S0. England, 532-41, 
553-8. Europe, 4S0, 522, 545, 551-3, 558. 
Hudson River, 71-2, 75-S2, 146-8, 169-72, 
1S7-9S, 510, 582-3, 586-7. Ireland, 546. 
Kennebec Valley, 573-4. Lake-shore, 170, 
203-6, 301, 310. Long Island, 84, 86-92, 
150-4. Louisville, 232-7. Mohawk Valley, 
197, 199-202, 208. Mt. Desert, 275-9, 574- 
Newport, 108. New York to Boston, 73, 
103, no, 117, 122, 128, 13 1-9, 149, 179-81, 
246-54, 580-2 ; to Philadelphia, 82, 84, 15S, 
167, 172, 389-90, 58S-9. NewZ^aland, 567-9. 
Ontario (conden.sed from guide), 315-6, 
331-2. Orange and Newark triangle, 159-62, 
583, 588. Outline tours, 11-12, 296-301. 
Philadelphia, 38S-90. Providence to Wor- 
cester, 109. St. Lawrence River, 325-30, 
S°o. 575- St. Louis to Boston, 487-8, 525. 
St. Louis to Staunton, 485-6. San Fran- 
cisco to Boston, 475-80. Scotland, 553-7. 
Seashore, 90, loS, 132, 138-9, 150-S, 274, 
283. Shenandoah Valley, 204, 296, 344-51, 
382-4,388, 494, 590. Springfield, 1 15-128, 
579-80. Staten Island, 156-8. Toronto to 
Kingston, 295-8, 301, 306, 318-25. Wash- 
ington, 376. Western New York (con- 
densed from guide), 221-3, 5^7. White 
Mtns., 575-7. Yosemite Valley, 491-2. 
Tourists : Books of reports by, 4S9, 549, 
673, 6S3-7, 6g6. Clothes and equipments 
for, 16-22. Duty of demanding that wheels 
be classed as baggage by all s. s. agents, 

591. Freedom of choice as to scene of 
tour, where no extra-baggage tax is levied, 

592. Hotels, Special attentions and privi- 
leges needed at, 602-4, 614. Reports 
wanted from, 717. Toilet articles i^eeded, 
17. Wishes disregarded by perfunctory ad- 
vocates of " League hotel policy," 601. 

Tours from '79 to '82, Outline of my personal, 

11-12, 26-33. 
Towns named in this book, Alphabatical list 

of 34S2, with 8418 references, xxxv.-lvii. 
Towns supplying 3200 subscribers to this 

book. Geographical list of 887, 765-94 ; 

index to, xx. 
Tow-path touring, g, 44, 173, iSo, 189, 190, 

'92, 199-202, 207-S, 212, 239-42,244-5,304-5, 

340, 342-3. 37?, 3^4. 479, 4^8. 

Trade Directory : Alphabetical list of 122 
subscribers at whose offices this book may 
be consulted, 796-7. Geographical list of 



XXXIV 



TEN THOUSAND MILES ON A BICYCLE. 



same, 79S-9. Significant omissions of the 
indifferent, yog. 

Trade in Cycles : Agent's guide for the, 679, 
6S5. Benefit received from circulation of 
Wlieelman, 659. Indifference lo my book, 
712. Statistics of 1S77, 656. 

Training, Books on, 674-5, 6S4-6. 

Transportation Tax, The, 591-600, x.; 
fees on N. Y. ferries and horse-cars, S6, 
96; touring, 221. Latest r.r.'s on free list, 
xci. Storage charge for wlieels at English 
railway stations, 598 ; in N. Y., 86. 

Tricycles, Index to makes of, Ixxix. 

"Tricycle Union" and "Tricycle Associa- 
tion," History of the defunct English, 647. 

Tricycling: Books on, 6S4-7; Ladies' les- 
sons at (Jrange, 5S8. Long rides, 509. 
Mileage, 509, 511, 517, 523, 525-6, 550. 
Racing, 523. Tours in Australia, 562-6; 
England, 534, 543. 554; France, 558, 600; 
Italy, 5.';, 600, 687. 

Triumph, defined by " H. H." (verses), 304. 

Uniform, Two essentials of a club-, 19 ; Price 
of C. \V. A., 635 ; Profits of C. T. C, 541 ; 
VVanamaker's L. A. VV., xc. 

Unions (Cycling) in Europe and Australia, 
65,-2. 

United States, .\bbreviations of the, with 
index of chief references, Iviii. Geo- 
graphical roll of the, from Maine to Cali- 
fornia, with alphabetical list of residences 
of subscribers to this book, 734, 765-89. 

University Building, The, 426-72, xv. : 
Architecture described by several observers, 
428-34, 439. Business management, 457, 
461. Collegians' conduct, 428, 459, 466. 
Danger of fire, 460. Defects as a lodging- 
house, 456. Eminent residents, 431, 434, 
464-'^. 47°- Historical statistics, 433-5. 437-8- 
Janitor, 438, 443, 456-80, 461-2. Lack of 
camaruderie, 462.* Pictures, 430, 434. 
Prince of Wales's visit in 1S60, 469-72. 
Seclusion of tenants, 438-9, 454-6. 463-4- 
Servants, 456-8. Women residents and 
visitors, 441-t. 

Valleys and Rivers, Index to, lix. 
Vandalism and vanity in Mammoth Cave, 381. 
Velocipeding in 1S69, 390-406. 



Velveteen, Excellences of, 19, 21. 

Veterans, Statistics from the, 502-30, 
xvi. 

Victoria : Cyclists' Union, 652. Journals, 
695-6, 558. Road races, 559-62. Subscrib- 
ers, 55S, 706, 793-4. Touring, 560-3, 565. 

Virginia (index, 550), University, 350, 435. 

Washington City (index, 590, hi.). 

Washington Square (index, Ixi.) : as it 
appeared in 1S35, 1S60 and 1878, 432-3 ; as 
a camp in the desert, 455 ; as scene of 
elbow-breaking, 24 ; as the real center of 
the world, 64-65 ; my proposed battle-field 
for the beer, 16 ; its Philadelphian name- 
sake, 494, 497. 

Waterfalls, Index to, Ixi. 

Weather,' Pointers as to, 209, 221, 256, 297- 
300 ; Summary of weather changes in my 
1400 m. ride, 297-300. 

White Flannel and Nickel Plate, 
16-22, ix. 

Wind as a factor in riding, 253, 263, 290, 
297-9. 3>3. 326, 556, 5-0. 

Winter Wheeling, 246-54, 491, xii. 

Winthrop (Maj. T.) as a typical hero of the 
civil war. Tribute to, 439. 

Women {see special index, Ixxxiii.). 

Xeiiophon's fame as a standard, viii. 

Yacht Kulinda, In the (verses), 353-4, 367. 

Yachting in the Paleocrystic Sea (verses), 23. 

Yachtings by wheelmen, 504, 532. 

Yale College : Advent of the bone-shaker 
in 1S69, 391-5. Bicycle races, 660. Boat- 
race manageinent at New London, 131. 
Books about, 133, 405, 466, 711, 722. Build- 
ings HI 1830, 434-5. Class biographies, 732. 
Class of 1837, 464. Directory of New 
York Graduates, 464. President Dwight 
on the Connecticut Valley roads in 1S03, 
127. Graduates alluded to, 25, 113, 140, 
304, 424, 439, 447. 464, 494, 657, 727. 728. 
732. Graduates as tenants of the Univer- 
sity Building, 465-6. Harvard's rivalry, 25, 
256. Libraries on sub. -list, 770. Veloci- 
peding in 1S19 and 1S69, 39S-402. Utopian 
ideal, 465. 

Yankee, Types of the, 36, 3S6, 439, 722. 

Zmertych's (I.) tour, London lo Pesth, 551. 



Coinparing the 675,000 words in this book with the 220,000 in my " Four Years at Yale " 
(72S pp., $2.50), 1 see that the price, at same rate, would be 57.50 ; whib, at rates of T. Stevens's 
book (547 pp. of 230,000 words, J4), or " Gen. Grant's Memoirs " (1232 pp. of 300,500 words, 
$7), the price would be S"-75. o"" ;p'5- 'Fhe pages of any single chapter will be mailed for 25 c. 



LA UDA TION A T LONDON. 

The Greek Kalends and Karl Kron's book were by many assumed to be 
synonymous, but the hope deferred has at length been fulfilled, and we are in 
possession of what may truly be called the first classic of cycling literature. 
Consisting of 900 pages, well and closely printed, the book offers a store of 
information which we shall not exaggerate by describing as simply marvel- 
ous. To the wheelmen of the world it appeals, its interests being in no way 
circumscribed by the limits of the American Continent. 

To review this book is difficult, to find fault with it well-nigh impossible. 
It is what it purports to be, a description of ten thousand miles traveling l)y 
bicycle in the New World ; and we venture to say that the reader who con- 
scientiously examines its wonderful collection of facts and fancies will rise 
from his perusal with a knowledge of America, her roads and scenery, which 
no other book in existence will afford him. 

There is many a noble thought nobly expressed in this book, with its 
bold originality of style and daring impudence of advertisement and egotism. 
Karl Kron is well read and entirely free from superficialism, a searcher after 
truth and a merciless prober of what he considers offenses. He is also pos- 
sessed of a vein of smart American humor, which illuminates the dry text of 
his book from beginning to end. In places, such as the inimitable chapter 
devoted to his bull-dog " Curl," he soars to a pitch which reiiiinds the reader 
very forcibly of Mark Twain and Max Adeler; and the cyclist who loves his 
dt)g will read this chapter over more times than once. To " Curl," whose 
noble and expressive features act as frontispiece, the book is dedicated, and 
there is a certain pathos in the selection. 

"Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle " teems with valuable information, 
supplied in witty phraseolog}', and as a work of standard reference and ex- 
haustive interest is likely to remain for many a day unrivaled. In addition 
to a literary taste, the book is distinctly appetizing from the mingled acridity 
and simplicity of its style. It is a really wonderful work, which we have no 
hesitation in saying will be the greatest work on cycling the world has seen. 
Heside its far-reaching interest, literary style and completeness of detail, the 
iMiglish work to which we have referred above [" Cycling," in the Badminton 
Library Series] sinks into insignificance; and in recommending our readers 
to buy the book, we suggest it not only to men who buy cycling literature as 
a matter of course, but also to the large division which reads no more than it 
can avoid. This is a good book, written and compiled by a clever man, and 
we hope it will be blessed with a very large circulation. — Wheelhii^, London. 

An American paper (the Athlete, of Philadelphia) says that the general 
English verdict on Karl Kron's book is against it. This is not so. The 
book is a good book, well worth the money, and its only hostile critics are 
two men, one of whom has compiled a very onesided English book, while the 
other, it is rumored, is about to produce another. We believe this latter 
will be good, but common modesty should have prevented both men from 
laying themselves loose on poor Karl Kron. — Wheeling, London. 



A FREE ADVER: 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



014 108 935 3 



Piililishers of catalogues and f rice-lists in the cycling trade, as welljis pub- 
lishers of all books and pamphlets in regard to cycling, are invited to insert therein 
the following free adv., — on the theory that they will help their own business by 
helping the sale of such a volume : 

Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle. By Karl Kion, author of "Four Years at Yale, 
by a Graduate of '69." Cloth bound, gilt top, photogravure frontispiece, 41 chapters, 908 pages, 
675,000 words, elaborate indexes (10,468 titles and 22,806 references), no advertisements. Mailed 
on receipt of money-order for %'l, by the publisher, Karl Kkon, at the University Buiiding, 
IVasliington Square, .Vew Vork City, D. Analytical contents-table, descriptive circulars and 
specimen pages sent free to any applicant by postal-card. (Publication was made May 25, 1887.) 
I urge that every man who iii any way makes money from the cycling- 
trade ought to freely advertise aiid push the sale of this book, simply as a 
scheme for increasing his trade; — and that he ought to give such incidental 
help, not only to this book, but to all other books and pamphlets of cycling, 
and to all the cycling journals. Whether a given one of my agents may be 
influenced by this personal motive of helping his own business, or by the 
broad'f motive of winning new converts to cycling as a gratification of senti- 
ment, or by a simple desire to see me reap some reward for what I have 
risked and suffered in building a more elaborate literary monument than any 
other sport can boast of, — he at least must be credited with expecting no pay- 
ment from myself. 

Journalism.— The following is a complete list of the 16 cycling papers now published in 
America (May 4, '87), arranged in order of their age, witli date of first niunber of each, names 
of editors and publishers, and places of issue. The weeklies are marked " w." and the month- 
lies" m.'"— the former's price being J 1 and the lattcr'sso c, unless otherwise shown : Bicycling 
IP'orld, w., Nov. 15, '79; C. W. Fourdrinier and J. S. Dean ; B. W. Pub. Co., 12 Pearl st., 
Boston, Mh. Wlieel,vi., Sept. 25, '80; F. P. Prial, 25 Park Row, N. Y. IVheetmens Ga- 
zette, ra., Apr., '83 ; H. E. Ducksr, Springfield, Ms. Catuidian Wheelman, m. (*i), Sept., 
'83 ; J. S. Brierley ; C. W. A. Pub. Co., London, Ont. Bicycle South, m., Dec, '84; H. P. 
Seiferth; Hunter & Genslinger, 1 16 Gravier st.. New Orleans, La. Star Advocate, \a.,yy?ii., 
'85; E. H. Corson, East Rochester, N. H. L.A. \V. Butleii>i,\\\,]v\y2, '85; A. Bassett; Ex. 
Com. L. A. \V. ; 22 School St., Boston, Ms. American Wheelman, m., Aug., '85; L. S. C. 
Ladish ; A. W. Pub. Co., 108 N. Fourth st., St. Louis, Mo. Bicycle, m. (12 c), Apr., 86 ; L. 
P. Thayer, West Randolph, Vt. Pacific Wheelman, w., Sept., '86; Crandall Bros., .■539 Bush 
St., San Francisco, Cal. Bicycle Herald fy' Evangelist, ni. (15c.), -Sept., '86; H. A. King; King 
Wheel Co., 51 Barclay St., N. Y. Minnesota Division, m., Nov., '86; E. C. Smith, Winona, 
Minn. WIteelmens Record, w., Jan. 6, '87; G. S. & P. C. Darrow ; W. R. Co., 25 Sentinel 
Building, Indianapolis, Ind. L. A. W. Pointer, m., Apr., '87; J. A. Hinman; L. A. W. P. 
Pub. Co., Oshkosh, Wis. Wlicel News, w. (70 c.), Apr. 1, '87; N. L. Collamer, 47 St. Cloud 
Building, Washington, D. C. Oregon Cyclist, Apr., '87 ; F. T. Merrill, 145 Fifth St., Portland. 
Or. No prise is attached to the last-named, nor notice as to when the future numbers will 
appear ; but, as it is " entered at the post office as second-class matter," such numbers seem to 
be intended. It has 22 pp., of standard size,— letterpress and adv. alternating. 

As regards this brief adv. of the American press, I urge that it ought to be given free in- 
sertion not only in every American book and painphlet devoted to cycling, but in every trade- 
catalogue or price-list which any American cycle dealer may issue. " Intelligent selfishness," 
and " the law of reciprocation " may both be said to demand this policy (as I explain on pp. 
653, 718): but I believe the only catalogues of 'H7 whose makers have yielded to my many 
printed and written arguments for granting such slight favor to the press are those of the Gor- 
mully & Jefiery Co., and .\. G. Spalding & Brother, both of Chicago. 

(C) 



